Will Lionel Messi play for MLS All-Stars in Arsenal friendly?

Pele reached heights few can even begin to imagine but he described playing in America as “the best thing I did in my life”.

After months of negotiations and weeks of speculation, Lionel Messi has followed in the Brazilian icon’s footsteps after finally completing his much-anticipated move to Inter Miami player on Monday – just in time for the MLS All-Star game against last season’s Premier League runners-up Arsenal.

The Golden Ball winner at the winter World Cup has to immediately be considered the league’s ultimate All-Star – especially when he would be vying with the likes of Christian Benteke for a spot in the front line.

However, there were 38 days between Messi’s public announcement of his intention to join Inter Miami and the club’s official statement to welcome the World Cup winner. With the All-Star match kicking off just three days after his unveiling, will Messi make a guest appearance?

Unfortunately for expectant fans flocking to DC United’s Audi Field, Messi will not be one of MLS’s All-Stars for the friendly against Arsenal, as confirmed by the league’s official website, which kicks off on Thursday 20 July at 01:30 BST.

Messi may be the biggest attraction that American football has to offer since Pele graced MLS’s predecessor NASL in the 1970s – but he has never actually played a minute in the US top flight, somewhat undermining his claims to be one of the league’s All-Stars.

While the result is hardly the most important factor in a pre-season friendly, Arsenal may still be relieved to avoid another encounter with Messi. The Argentine has come up against the Gunners on six previous occasions and scored nine goals.

In 2014, Arsenal’s then-manager Arsene Wenger revealed that he almost signed Messi before he had broke into Barcelona’s first team as part of the deal that brought Cesc Fabregas to north London. “We wanted to take Fabregas, Messi and [Gerard] Pique,” Wenger wistfully remembered. “It worked only for Fabregas.”

A combination of public voting, the opinion of MLS commissioner Don Garber and some say from the individual tasked with coaching the team, Wayne Rooney, has led to the construction of a 28-man All-Star squad.

The roster was released on 7 July, a week before Messi had officially joined the league – which goes some way to explaining his absence. As many as 18 different MLS clubs can boast an All-Star this year but Inter Miami didn’t contribute a single player.

Messi may never have played in MLS or with his new teammates but he has shared a dressing room with one of the players tipped to shine among the All-Stars. Thiago Almada was only afforded seven minutes of action during Argentina’s triumphant World Cup campaign (incidentally coming on during the only game in which Messi failed to score). But the prodigious 22-year-old is the attacking lynchpin of his club side Atlanta United, scoring eight goals and creating nine more this season.

The reigning MVP Hany Mukhtar will no doubt catch the eye as well. No other player can match Mukhtar’s greedy tally of 20 direct goal contributions from just 21 league starts this term, with the case for the defence of his MVP crown already gathering speed.

Riqui Puig won’t add to the 26 matches he played alongside Messi at Barcelona this week. In fact, the Masia graduate may struggle to get in the starting XI altogether given the competition that exists in attacking midfield.

READ MORE ON LIONEL MESSI’S MOVE TO INTER MIAMI

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