Travis and Jason Kelce have clashed over whether it’s as captivating to watch Lionel Messi play for Inter Miami as it was when he dazzled at Barcelona.
Lionel Messi, 36, has an illustrious history with Barcelona, boasting 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League victories, not to mention being the club’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals before his departure in summer 2021.
Messi made the move to Miami last summer. Although no longer universally acknowledged as one of the globe’s premier football talents and approaching the twilight of his career, he continues to draw massive audiences in the US.
On the latest instalment of their New Heights podcast, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis and his brother Jason, who hung up his NFL boots after a stellar 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles, locked horns over Messi’s stint in Major League Soccer.
“I’ll tell you what though, Messi played in Kansas City this past weekend,” Travis said on the show. “He played in Arrowhead, actually.”
Messi made the journey from Argentina to Barcelona at 13, and became a first-team player four years later. Post Barcelona, he played for Paris Saint-Germain for two years, during which he pocketed two Ligue 1 trophies.
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“Seeing Michael Jordan on the golf course is not the same as seeing Jordan in a Bulls uniform. You see one person on the biggest stage possible, with the biggest team in history. This is the best soccer player at the World Cup. That’s different than seeing Lionel Messi tearing it up in Kansas City, just saying.”
For many years, Messi struggled to replicate his club form at international level. Argentina lost the World Cup final in 2014, the Copa America final in 2015, and the Copa America final again in 2016. Yet Messi eventually broke his international drought in 2021 at the age of 34 when Argentina won the Copa America. Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, then won the World Cup in 2022.
Travis told his brother: “Dude, it’s the same – it’s Lionel Messi,” Travis said. “It was the same as when (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic went f****** crazy in LA (for LA Galaxy). It’s great, it’s electric. He made the MLS fun to watch.”