FORT LAUDERDALE.- with the star Lionel Messi in front, the Inter Miami He started his preseason training this Monday under the orders of his new coach, the Argentine Javier Mascherano.
Messi, who will be playing his third season in the North American League (MLS), protected himself with a wool hat from the morning weather in practice, in which he exercised alongside teammates such as Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba.
“Both Leo and the rest (I saw) very well. We are very happy with how everyone has returned from vacation, because it was a very long vacation,” Mascherano declared to the press at the franchise’s facilities in Fort Lauderdale (outskirts of Miami).
The young strategist, who shared a dressing room with Messi during his time as a Barcelona player, will make his debut on the Inter bench on Saturday in a friendly against América of Mexico in Las Vegas (Nevada).
“We don’t have much time to prepare for the game, but we will try to do it in the best way to start generating habits within the team,” explained ‘El Jefecito’.
Mascherano, who faces his first position as a club coach, must reactivate a team that last year broke the MLS points record, but then suffered an unexpected elimination in the first round of the playoffs in November.
Little by little
Looking ahead to the duel against América, the Argentine warned that he will limit the playing time of both his oldest players and the rest, to limit the risk of injury.
“The objective is to get all the players physically and technically ready for when the official competition begins,” he stressed. “We will see the minutes depending on the sensations they have.”
Inter, also a participant in the FIFA Club World Cup in the middle of the year, has other tests scheduled against Universitario of Peru (January 29), Sporting San Miguelito of Panama (February 2) and Olimpia of Honduras (February 8 ), before the start of MLS on February 22.