- Messi and Inter Miami will begin the new MLS season on Wednesday
- His former Barcelona teammate Luis Suárez will line up alongside him this year
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A day before Lionel Messi and company kick off, MLS turned to Love Island’s Iain Stirling to build anticipation ahead of the 2024 season.
Messi and Inter Miami will begin the new campaign on Wednesday night, when they take on Real Salt Lake City at their newly named Chase Stadium.
And ahead of the season opener, famed Love Island narrator Stirling, best known for his work on the British version of the hit dating show, recorded a hilarious voiceover for a special MLS promotion.
In true Love Island style, the video begins with Stirling taking a look at the previous installment of the show, or in this case, the 2023 MLS season.
“Before in the MLS… a new fashionable Argentine enters the league and the temperatures rise,” he says about Messi.
MLS has launched a fun Love Island-inspired promotion on the eve of the new season
Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi described as ‘hot new Argentinian’ in promotion
After noting that the Miami superstar became the first MLS player to win the Ballon d’Or in October, Stirling jokes about an old video of Toronto FC goalkeeper Chris Konopka running off the field to drink the beer a fan in the stands.
“Not bad for a league that was still doing this ten years ago,” he jokes.
Next, the Scottish comedian highlights the victory of the FC Cincinnati Supporters’ Shield and the Colombus Crew, a team that “sounds like an all-male high school rap collective,” which won the MLS Cup last season.
He then turns his attention to Miami newcomer Luis Suarez, who has reunited with his former Barcelona teammate Messi this year.
“This season in MLS… a Uruguayan is looking to change things,” says Stirling.
The Love Island icon jokes that former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who recently joined Los Angeles FC, fits in perfectly in America “playing football with his hands”.
Luis Suárez, who reunited with Messi in Miami this year, also appears in the video
Former LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau is brutally said to have been “kicked off the island” after being sold to the Portland Timbers.
In light of Lloris’ arrival, former LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau is brutally said to have been “kicked off the island” after being sold to the Portland Timbers.
The promo concludes with Sterling asking: “Will I get a free Messi shirt for filming this video?”
Messi and Suárez’s Miami begins the new season on Wednesday, before Lloris and LAFC face the Seattle Sounders on Saturday.
Reigning champion Columbus will also play the first game of its title defense against Atlanta United on Saturday.