Did Messi turn the stadium into a front row?

There is enough literature online to recount the impact of Leo Messi in the MLS, who has broken through like a battering ram in the league's balance not only on the field through his (already beautiful) goals, but also on social media and in the stadium, which has become a theatre in which to go and see an extraordinary creature live, the prophet of soccer with an F. Messi has turned his team's matches at Miami's Lockhart Stadium into a social event and already in the opening match, VIPs such as Lebron James, Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams and, of course, David Beckham, the club's owner, were seen in the stands. The trend has continued and Inter Miami matches have become a must-attend event for American VIPs, creating a parterre not common for a football match but more like that of a fashion show. Even during NBA games, the amount of VIPs present in the front row is not comparable to the one who attended Leo Messi's first appearance in Los Angeles yesterday, on the occasion of the match won 3:1 against Giorgio Chiellini's team, especially considering that it was a 'simple' league game. For Messi, zero goals but two assists, in front of Prince Harry, Selena Gomez, Tyga, Leonardo Di Caprio, and Owen Wilson, who said he was 'excited like a kid at Christmas'.

Perhaps it could not be otherwise given the nature of the city and its habit of creating spectacle, from cinema to sport. Even Los Angeles Lakers games are no coincidence that they are big dates for VIPs, it is more unusual however to see such a grandstand for a football match, as well as scenes at the end of the game such as Owen Wilson going to ask Messi for an autograph on the sidelines, being overwhelmed by the fans completely disinterested in the Hollywood star. The cameras at the Bank of California Stadium caught the faces of many other faces from show business and sport, also confirmed by a list published online, in which appear, in no particular order: Tom Holland, Gerard Butler, James Harden, Will Farrell, Nas, Edward Norton and Liam Gallagher. 

Leo Messi seems to have succeeded in transforming the MLS not only on a technical level and in terms of revenue, but above all in the perception that a public unaccustomed to seeing one of the best players in the history of football live, has of football. It is not surprising then that the matches and all that goes with them are interpreted according to the chrisms of American sporting culture, and that the matches do not remain just sporting events, but stages where the best of showbiz is brought together. Messi is creating around his matches a magnetic center to which the world of entertainment is drawn, as well as the media and social media. Every match so far has been a catwalk of stars, every seat in the stands a place in the front row of the most eagerly awaited fashion show on the calendar. We just have to wait and see when Messi will play for the first time in New York, LA's East Coast counterpart, where VIPs are at home at Knicks, Nets, Yankees or Mets games. Messi creates spectacle and creativity like the designers of fashion weeks, the attraction towards epicness and greatness is almost a natural consequence, a dream that the Argentine has given to the American public and to a league that is figuring out how to relate to the change taking place in the world of football, increasingly understood as a cross-sectorial and cross-media form of entertainment.