Before their crucial Champions Cup quarterfinal against Nashville, Inter Miami defender Julian Gressel was summoned by a teammate many consider to be the greatest soccer player of all time.
And when Lionel Messi talks, especially on the rare occasion he does so in English, you simply have to listen.
‘When [former captain] DeAndre Yedlin left, we talked about how he would always speak in the team huddle before the game, so Leo actually asked me to speak in the team huddle, which is obviously a huge honor for me,’ Gressel recalled on his and sports broadcaster Zealand Shannon’s PLAYER/MANAGER podcast.
‘He [Leo] came up to me and said, in English, “You speak to the team.”
‘I was like yes, okay, sounds good.’
Gressel, the German-born USMNT star who moved to Miami in January, is 30 years of age and has been in professional soccer for the last seven years, but being trusted by Messi to rally the troops before a cup quarterfinal was enough to set his nerves jangling.
However, in the end he opted to throw in some of Messi’s native tongue into his speech on the field, before Miami went on to hit the ground running against Nashville.
‘Then obviously you’re like… what are you going to say to these guys?’ Gressel continued. ‘In the game against Nashville, the second leg, I said something in Spanish. I said, “Let’s win the first five minutes and then we’re going to win the game.”
‘Super quick, super simple. Let’s go… and then we scored after 7 minutes. Not quite 5 minutes, but I felt pretty good about my pregame speech.
‘It’s a cool moment when he comes up to you and asks you to say something to the team. To have the trust from him in me is something that obviously is a great feeling and something that shows me okay I’ve done the right things over the last few months to to earn his trust.
‘And then to pay it back with a little bit of Spanish, he [Leo] thought it was funny and he laughed a little bit.’
While they did go on to win the game and the tie, it was not all positive for Miami against Nashville after Messi hobbled off early with a hamstring injury.
The 37-year-old missed last weekend’s win over D.C. United and has also been ruled out of Argentina’s two international fixtures in the US over the next week.
Argentina will face El Salvador on Friday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia before playing Costa Rica four days later at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Miami, meanwhile, are set to visit the New York Red Bulls this Saturday before hosting New York City a week later.
