Soccer
Inter Miami’s search for the successor to Gerardo “Tata” Martino took only a matter of days, with the Herons eager to dive headlong into the work of preparing for a 2025 season that promises to be even busier than this year’s.
It can only have sped along that process that the relationship with their eventual choice of head coach, Javier Mascherano, dates back half a decade.
“This is, frankly, a journey with Javier. In August of 2019, Javier and I were in my office in Miami,” managing owner Jorge Mas revealed to reporters as Mascherano was officially introduced in a Tuesday press conference.
“We spent a whole night together, because at that time, I was looking at the possibility of bringing Mascherano to play his last year as a player for our club, and then continue as a coach in our club, and especially to help us build an amazing academy system here.”
Longtime target
That didn’t pan out; the former Argentina, Liverpool and FC Barcelona star wound up his trophy-laden playing career back home at Estudiantes instead.
Yet the interaction would prove influential for Mas and his leadership team last month as they contemplated the next steps in their sweepingly ambitious IMCF project, following Martino’s decision to step down from his post for personal reasons after an eventful year and a half in charge.
“In 2019, we were doing a multilayered deal with him playing his last year and then coaching, and for whatever reason it didn’t go through,” Mas later explained. “It was my desire to have him here. I’ve always admired him as a player and his characteristics, and I always thought that he would be an amazing mentor to our young players in our opening season. But five years later, he’s here. So it’s fate.
“He embodies what we want. He embodies passion. He embodies hard work. His trajectory as a player at the highest levels of football was extraordinary. But most importantly, again, are his human characteristics and his values and his coaching philosophy, and I think he will be a tremendous ambassador for our club.”
Bienvenido a casa @Mascherano ???? pic.twitter.com/N7XeniAJCu
— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) December 2, 2024
Barça reunited
On one hand, the hire is logical, reuniting Mascherano with his old friends and former Barça teammates Leo Messi, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. A compatriot of Martino’s will take the Herons forward into a campaign packed not just with MLS, Leagues Cup and Concacaf Champions Cup play, but also the massive showcase of FIFA’s newly expanded Club World Cup – a tournament Mascherano won twice as a player – on home soil come summer.
On the other, it’s widely perceived as a gamble considering Mascherano’s limited coaching experience, spent mostly with Argentina’s youth national teams, and the mixed performances those teams produced under his guidance.
“People in the world can have their opinion and it is valid, clearly, but I am convinced that I am capable of coaching the team. I am very excited to be able to do it,” said Mascherano, 40, in Spanish. “I can do it. I have no doubt.
“Sometimes in football [talk of] ‘experience’ doesn’t make much sense,” he added. “Beyond the fact that I have been coaching for three years, coaching the youth teams of the Argentine national team, [where] I have always been under pressure … I am also supported by a playing career of almost 20 years and everything I’ve experienced.”
Asked how he’ll handle the task of leading friends and former colleagues like Messi, who is just three years younger than he, Mascherano pointed out that he’s done so before – including with a few of Miami’s young talents who were part of Argentina’s YNT player pool.
“Not only do I have a relationship with Leo, I have another three players in this roster that I played with for a long time. I have a relationship, a very close relationship, with them, and I’m not going to deny that,” he said. “I’m not going to come into the locker room saying that I have friendship. In the [2024] Olympics, I had to coach [Nicolás] Otamendi, who was a friend of mine. And there’s no problem. You separate things. One thing is work, one thing is friendship.
“It’s a lot easier when you have the possibility to have that closeness with the player, because at the end, there is a knowledge between us that with other players I don’t have, because I’ve just started my relationship with them. But I can say that whether we go with [Benja] Cremaschi with Toto Avilés or Facu Farías, I have a relationship. … For me, life goes beyond football. From here, we’re all doing the same thing, and we get involved to do things the best way possible, so that Inter Miami can go as far as possible.”
Las primeras palabras de Mascherano como nuestro nuevo entrenador ✨???????? @Mascherano pic.twitter.com/dzdDuth27y
— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) December 2, 2024
More new faces?
Coach and owner alike alluded to the CWC, which will kick off in Miami with an opening match featuring the Herons and an opponent soon to be determined at Hard Rock Stadium on June 15, as both a daunting test and rare opportunity on a global stage.
Mas said the winter transfer window “is of great importance to us” as they seek to “improve the club in every aspect” after a record-breaking capture of the 2024 Supporters’ Shield followed by a stunning Round One exit from the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs at the hands of ninth-seeded Atlanta United, easily one of the biggest upsets in league history.
“The ‘25 season started the day after the Atlanta game,” Mas said. “We have a great challenge as a club, not only ConcaChampions, the Club World Cup, the Leagues Cup, to try to get several titles, which is what we hope for as a club. But in truth, it is a great challenge for the league [also], because in the Club World Cup, Seattle and Inter Miami are going to represent this league against 30 of the best teams in the world.
“I believe that the benefit of Javier Mascherano is going to get the best performance out of our roster, from our youth to our new players that are going to come in, and the stars that we have … It was very important to bring Javi in as soon as possible, so that everybody can start working.”
Read MoreJoan Badon