FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Javier Mascherano’s start as Inter Miami’s new head coach began inauspiciously on Tuesday. The 40-year-old former Argentina national team captain had trouble containing an abrupt cough just as managing owner Jorge Mas, who opened the news conference, gave Mascherano the floor.
For a midfield strongman who was unfazed by the bright lights during his playing days with Barcelona and Liverpool, it appeared as though his biggest moment as a manager had left him, well, choked up.
After a few sips of water, Mascherano remarked that the air conditioning in Miami was “complicated.” To his credit, nearly every indoor space in South Florida is adorned with an AC unit, and they typically run at full blast. Welcome to Miami, Javier. Have a second layer with you at all times.
How he adjusts to American soccer, though, is what is at play. Mascherano immediately got a taste of what it’s like to be the man in charge at Inter Miami. After the 30-minute press conference, Mascherano was ushered in and out of different Chase Stadium suites by Miami staffers. He did 11 interviews with mostly members of the local press, some in English, others in Spanish.
The media responsibilities of an MLS coach, which include weekly availability during the regular season, pre-broadcast interviews with rights holder Apple TV, and halftime interviews — a standard American practice — will be an adjustment for Mascherano, as well.
On this day, however, his ability to express himself in front of a microphone wasn’t the story. It was his credentials and whether he’s qualified to be a professional head coach.
“This all took me by surprise,” said Mascherano, who was under contract with the Argentina Football Association through to 2026. “It all happened very very quickly and I had to make a decision.”
Mas defended the hire, saying that Mascherano’s appointment was a historic day for the club. “We have an immense and enormous trust in Javier leading us to the heights we want,” he said.
Being seated next to Mascherano, Mas said, was fate. The hands-on billionaire had worked diligently to sign Mascherano in 2019 as a player in an attempt to convince the Argentine to come to the U.S. and retire as a Miami player after the club’s inaugural 2020 season.
Mas told reporters that, at that time, he viewed Mascherano as the ideal person to help mentor the club’s young players. Mas hoped that Mascherano would then transition to the academy to help build Miami’s youth divisions. In other words, Mascherano wasn’t first-team head coach material but rather someone earmarked to train the club’s up-and-coming talent. Mascherano told Diario Ole on Tuesday that he had signed with Miami but that a personal issue forced him to pull out of the deal.
Five years later, Mascherano is tasked with leading his friend and former teammate Lionel Messi to an MLS Cup title in 2025, and potentially, global and regional relevance in U.S. soccer. “He (Mascherano) embodies passion. He embodies hard work,” Mas said. “You know his trajectory. He was a player at the highest levels of football.”
Mascherano himself said that his 20-year playing career is enough to put him in this position, despite the criticism that has surrounded his hire. “People can have their opinion and those opinions are valid, clearly,” said Mascherano. “But I’m convinced that I’m qualified to coach this team. I’m very excited to do so. Experience in football doesn’t always make sense.”
After Mas revealed last week that he had consulted Messi about signing Mascherano as Gerardo Martino’s successor, the notion that Messi had green-lit the hiring of one of his closest friends spread across the football world.
Mascherano, who as a player was never one to shy away from a tough tackle, met the “Messi and friends” criticism head-on.
“The relationship that I have with Leo is one that I’ve never denied and I’m not going to deny it now,” he said.
“I have a friendship with him because of all the time we played together and because we’ve known each other for so long. I have no idea how these (hiring) decisions are made and what their methodology is. You’d have to ask the person making those decisions. I’m happy to be here. It’ll be a big challenge for me.”
Mas said that during a whirlwind three-day process, Mascherano was one of three candidates the club identified to replace Martino. Data and analytics, he added, were used to quickly determine the right fit.
But clearly, the metric that mattered most was Mascherano’s familiarity with Miami’s four big stars. Messi, along with Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, have a long history together as serial winners at Barcelona.
“It’s not just about my relationship with Leo but also the relationship I have with the other three players because I played with them for a long time,” said Mascherano. “I have a very, very close relationship (with them), and again, I’m not going to deny it.”
Another point in Mascherano’s favor: he recently coached Miami’s young contingent of Federico Redondo, Facundo Farias, Tomas Aviles, and now U.S. international Benjamin Cremaschi, as the head coach of Argentina’s under-20 and under-23 sides. Redondo and Farias, on separate occasions, were left off of Mascherano’s pre-Olympic qualifying squad and his final Paris 2024 team.
Those instances, he said, were examples of his ability to make difficult decisions on players he knows well. But how will he react if Miami slump or stagnate in 2025? If Suarez’s legs don’t hold up like they did in 2024, will Mascherano bench the Uruguayan? What will Mascherano do when opposing coaches continue to use speed and numerical superiority to target Busquets in midfield?
According to Mascherano, he has already walked that fine line. He mentioned that he coached his former Argentina teammate Nicolas Otamendi during the Olympics. Otamendi was one of Argentina’s four over-aged players. “He’s a good friend of mine and there was no problem,” Mascherano said of Otamendi. “Those things get separated. There’s the job and then there’s friendships.”
In Miami, Mascherano will be under pressure to build upon the club’s Supporters’ Shield-winning season, but his inexperience as a head coach could also provide him with a wider margin for error. Such glowing praise from Mas feels like an assurance that the revolving door of coaches will end for the foreseeable future.
Mascherano’s past and present with Messi, Busquets, Suarez and Alba will be the central theme, however, as Mascherano navigates perceptions of nepotism with the realities of a celebrity-driven club.
“I told them that I’m not going to walk into the dressing room and act like we’re not friends,” Mascherano said. “I told Jorge (Mas), I told Leo and the other guys that I’m not going to jeopardize the relationship that I have built with them over the years for a job. I’m not like that. Life goes on beyond football.”
Seated on a white leather sofa inside a suite at Chase Stadium, Mascherano spoke to The Athletic about molding this Miami side to play his style of football. There’s a framed David Beckham number 23 Inter Miami jersey hanging behind him. The 2024 team picture in poster size was nestled tightly under a flat-screen television on the other wall.
We’re steps away from the ground’s sun-drenched pitch where Mascherano will patrol the home side’s touchline next year. With the Beckham brand in plain sight and Martino’s record-breaking team photo in the foreground, Mascherano admitted that he and Martino, who coached him for two years with Argentina, are actually quite similar.
He won’t have to reinvent the wheel tactically. Miami’s personnel became well-drilled under the 61-year-old Martino on their way to a 79-goal regular season. Mas, with little time to ponder, made the right decision to maintain the team’s culture.
“There’s a lot that I saw when reviewing this season that I identify with, in terms of how the team plays,” said Mascherano. I know what (Martino) demands from his teams. Every coach has his own nuance but there are a lot of things that we have in common.”
If Mascherano can find a way to increase the team’s intensity and add some level of pragmatism to its defensive personality, perhaps he will take Miami further than Martino did. He knows Messi more intimately than Martino, which could prove beneficial if he can press the right buttons tactically around the superstar.
“I’ve had the privilege of watching (Messi’s) evolution, first as that player who started as a forward and surprised all of us with his one-versus-one skills,” Mascherano said. “Leo has turned into a complete player who plays all over the field. When you have a player like that, the most important thing is to give him the freedom to move where he believes the team needs him and for his teammates to understand his movements.”
In that sense, Miami is ahead of schedule, which is another point in Mascherano’s favor. Martino, one could argue, did a lot of the heavy lifting and certainly left the club much better than how he found it. Mascherano was handed the keys to a sports car with some engine trouble.
It’ll be his job to keep the club on course in what will be a congested 2025 schedule. Miami will play the MLS regular season, Leagues Cup, CONCACAF Champions Cup, and will also host the first match of the newly formatted Club World Cup in June. Presently, it’s an unenviable challenge.
Mas said that the team will look to add more talent during the upcoming winter transfer window, but what Miami wants to do and what MLS roster restrictions allow are not aligned. Mascherano was blunt when he described the uphill battle Miami face over the summer.
“We’ll face teams that are much more powerful than us, that have a lot more history,” he said.
Inside that same Chase Stadium suite there’s a hardcover book next to the Miami team photo. It’s a British fiction novel titled Peculiar Ground but it’s been rewrapped in pink paper to look like a prop. WE ARE FEARLESS is printed in all caps on the side. Being courageous is one of many rallying cries associated with Inter Miami. And so it was fitting how Mascherano described his decision to come to MLS.
“One has to be brave,” he said. “When you see an opportunity, you have to commit and give your best. There isn’t much else to say about that. I’m optimistic that things are going to go well here.”
In the results business of football, we will soon find out.
(Top photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
