FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Inter Miami‘s 2024 season came to an abrupt end with elimination in the first round of the MLS playoffs, but the team had reasons to be optimistic about the future. The Herons had just lifted the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, set the league record for most points in a single season and secured another year of attacking duo Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez by signing the Uruguayan to a contract extension.
But the anticipation for 2025 suddenly came to a screeching halt when head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino announced his resignation due to “personal reasons” less than two weeks later on Nov. 22. The news had leaked days before the former manager could even formally address his players about his decision, catching staff inside the club by surprise, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Although no one saw the announcement coming, the Inter Miami board quickly reacted. Co-owner Jorge Mas conferred with co-owner David Beckham, then-sporting director Raul Sanllehi and Messi to find a new manager who could handle the locker room and fulfill high expectations.
Inter Miami announced Javier Mascherano on Nov. 26 as the team’s newest head coach. The former player with no prior club managerial experience and a limited résumé of coaching only the Argentina youth national team now faced the daunting challenge of leading the Herons to continued success.
The appointment drew mixed reactions from fans, with many asking what qualified Mascherano to lead Inter Miami, a superstar-packed club with high expectations.
“Obviously people in the world are going to have opinions, and that’s a valid opinion, of course,” Mascherano said at his introductory news conference. “I am convinced I can do it. I have no doubt.”
So, how did Miami land on Mascherano?
Mascherano’s journey with Inter Miami actually began in 2019, in a meeting with Mas at his office in South Florida to discuss soccer. The two spent an entire night speaking about Mascherano’s extensive knowledge of the sport and unique philosophy on the game, Mas said. Those were two factors that made Mascherano an attractive choice for the then-brand-new MLS club.
Mas originally hoped to sign Mascherano as a player on a one-year contract to debut with the club before transitioning the Argentine into a coaching role to develop the team’s academy. The two couldn’t make a deal work at the time, leaving Mascherano to retire with Argentine club Estudiantes in 2020 while Miami debuted in MLS without him. A source confirmed to ESPN that the contract had been signed by both parties but eventually fell through for personal reasons.
Five years later, Mas finally convinced Mascherano to join his team.
The hiring process was quick. After being told about Martino’s plans to retire on Nov. 17, Mas immediately began the search. The criteria was simple: a coach Messi would feel comfortable being led by who could also manage the other personalities in the locker room. In the span of a couple of days, the team’s board narrowed down a list of three candidates before Mas contacted Mascherano to begin negotiations.
“Above all, it was very fast and very intense because I received a message from Jorge where he wanted to talk to me,” Mascherano said to ESPN. “First we had a five-minute talk where he told me he intended to have a meeting, then the next day we had a meeting via Zoom. Two days later, we were already reaching an agreement so that I could be the new coach. It was the truth that very quickly there was not much to think about.”
Before accepting the role, Mascherano spoke with Messi about the opportunity and asked for his opinion. Messi and Mascherano go way back — they spent about 10 years playing together with the Argentina national team and for Barcelona.
Messi didn’t leave Mascherano with particular advice, Mascherano said, but the conversation helped facilitate the ongoing negotiations. Once Mas conferred with both Messi and Mascherano, the decision was made. This is the first time the club has been explicit and direct about Messi’s involvement in the decision of hiring front office staff.
Earlier this year, a source confirmed to ESPN that Sanllehi would no longer be in charge of sporting matters and instead would be replaced by the club’s academy director, Guillermo Hoyos, nicknamed by Messi as his “footballing father.”
As the news of Hoyos’ promotion broke, GiveMeSport reported that Sanllehi and Messi had “an exchange of words” when Sanllehi entered a player and staff bus in Las Vegas, leading many to wonder if the front office restructuring was prompted by Messi.
The club shut down allegations of an argument between Messi and Sanllehi, with a statement to ESPN: “The club denies the allegations of a fight between Messi and Sanllehi. The move to promote Hoyos was preplanned.”
But Messi’s role in the club’s decisions — from hiring Mascherano and beyond — is clear. Playing with Messi served as the incentive for players like Jordi Alba and Suárez to join Inter Miami, and he was also named as an integral factor in the decisions of Gonzalo Luján, Tadeo Allende and Telasco Segovia to sign with the club.
Although Mas has said Mascherano possesses several qualities that convinced the board of his capabilities to lead the team, Mascherano’s relationship with Messi, the team’s star forward and captain, paved the path. Ultimately, the goal for Mas when hiring a coach was not league experience but a manager who could handle the blockbuster figures in the locker room.
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“Why Mascherano?” Mas asked during the introductory news conference. “He brings to the club the uncommon experience of having worked with the young players and with the most important players of this club.”
Is Mascherano’s hiring a risk for Inter Miami?
Before trading in his cleats for a coaching license, Mascherano spent several seasons playing alongside not just Messi but also Suárez, Alba and Sergio Busquets with Barcelona. Nicknamed “Jefecito” or “Little Boss” in Spanish, Mascherano led Barcelona to 13 trophies, including five LaLiga titles, two UEFA Champions League titles and two FIFA Club World Cup titles, among others.
Messi and Mascherano have built a lasting friendship over the years, and Mascherano has made no effort to hide his familiarity with Messi and the rest of the former Barcelona stars. Rather, he believes his comfort level with Inter Miami’s stars can only help him in his new role.
“We must remember that we are making that change or transition now,” Mascherano said. “A lot of water has passed under the river. I left Barcelona in 2018. Now, a lot of time has passed, we are grown-up people, we know how to differentiate things. I take it as an advantage to be able to know each other, to have had teammates and obviously to have great players like them.
“I had a talk with Leo to also get his opinion. I am lucky to have a very fluid relationship with him that allows me to be sincere and to talk to him with depth. It also allows him to be honest with me about what he thinks.”
In 2021, Mascherano made the transition from retired player to coach when he was appointed the manager of the Argentina under-20 national team. He was tasked with scouting the best young Argentinian talent playing around the world to feature in competitions like the 2022 South American games, the 2023 Under-20 South American Championship, the 2023 Under-20 World Cup, the 2024 CONMEBOL pre-Olympic tournament and 2024 Olympic Games.
Mascherano called up Tomás Avilés, Benjamin Cremaschi, Facundo Farias and Federico Redondo at different points throughout his three-year stint with La Albiceleste, working with players he will now lead at Inter Miami. He worked extensively with Avilés and Redondo, in particular, during the U20 FIFA World Cup when using both players throughout the group stage matches and round-of-16 game against Nigeria. Mascherano utilized Avilés as a center back and Redondo in the midfield, keeping in line with their roles under Martino at Inter Miami.
Given his experience with Redondo in 2023, Mascherano decided to call up the midfielder as a reserve for the 2024 Olympics. Although Redondo failed to feature in the tournament, he trained under Mascherano and his coaching staff for several weeks.
“The truth is that he is a person who sees football in a spectacular way, who knows how to exploit and bring out the best version of each player,” Redondo told ESPN. “I have had experience with [Mascherano] when we went through important things like a U20 World Cup, the pre-Olympic tournament, and knowing the way he works, he works very well, that he has the same idea of the game as our team, which is to always be the protagonist on all the fields. He wants to take control of the game, and that makes us very excited about this upcoming year together.”
Beyond the opportunity to familiarize himself with Inter Miami’s youngest faces, Mascherano says the time with La Albiceleste‘s youth teams allowed him to hone his vision of the sport and emerge with a clear idea of how he wants to play. Now, he’s hoping to translate that onto new signings to shape this team into his own.
“I think that this has given us a journey during these three years where we have the possibility of arriving at this club at this moment with many certainties and above all convinced of what we want,” Mascherano said.
After Martino’s exit, can Mascherano make Miami his own?
Despite Martino’s short time at the helm, his exit leaves behind an immense legacy at Inter Miami, including the inaugural Leagues Cup trophy and the aforementioned single-season points record.
But his greatest impact on the club continues to be the thoughtfully built squad, after maneuvering through complicated roster rules and league restrictions to construct a team that could compete in multiple tournaments. Martino took over the club from Phil Neville in the summer of 2023 and immediately transformed Miami from a bottom-of-the-table team to cup winners and title contenders by manipulating strict rules and discovering the hidden talent at the Inter Miami academy.
Beyond Messi, Suárez, Alba and Busquets, Martino signed four offensive players to energize the attack — Matías Rojas, Diego Gómez, Julian Gressel and Redondo — who ended up contributing 11 goals and 27 assists of the team’s total of 79 MLS goals in 2024.
Martino also fortified the back line with Avilés, David Martínez, Marcelo Weigandt and Nicolas Freire. Academy players Cremaschi and Yannick Bright flourished under Martino to become eventual starters in some of the team’s most integral matches.
Each signing provided the necessary depth for Inter Miami to reach the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup, qualify to the Leagues Cup round of 16 and maintain consistency through the Copa America-induced absences to win the Supporters’ Shield. Most of Martino’s signings and academy gems continue to be starters today with Weigandt, Redondo and Bright playing active roles throughout the 2025 preseason. Weigandt, in particular, started all four matches as right back.
Whether Mascherano can transform the inherited Martino-styled roster into his own remains to be seen. Although his knowledge of MLS and roster building may be more limited than his predecessor’s, Mas approved the hiring because in the minds of the board, Mascherano boasts a unique understanding of the current players and a distinctive perspective.
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“Contrary to what everyone believes, players teach you much more than a coach can teach players,” Mascherano said.
Since Mascherano took the helm on Nov. 26, there have been several roster moves that provide insight into the team he hopes to build ahead of the 2025 MLS season. CJ dos Santos, Cole Jensen, Sergii Kryvtsov, Franco Negri, Lawson Sunderland and Felipe Valencia have all departed, making way for new blood. With Mascherano at the helm, Miami signed MLS veteran Fafà Picault and newcomers Rocco Rios Novo, Maximiliano Falcón, Segovia, Allende and Lujan to add depth to the roster.
But the reality is Mascherano has assumed a roster that he, for the majority, has not built himself. Hoyos didn’t build it either but will now be tasked with helping Mascherano deliver the necessary results with a squad that Martino and Sanllehi mostly constructed.
Mas, as well as the Inter Miami directive, remains content with his choice to lead the team to the ultimate objective: trophies. Mas promised the supporters that the team would conclude the 2025 campaign with silverware, and Mascherano must make that happen.
“There is pressure here to win, and that pressure is going to continue,” Mas said. “We expect it of ourselves, our coaches and players.”
