Sergio Busquets is not troubled by the heat in south Florida. When asked about the heat he’ll face as an Inter Miami player, Busquets chuckles with a wide grin and a new tan from three days of training in Fort Lauderdale.
It’s not a problem, he claims. Barcelona has conducted multiple preseason tours in Miami, including last summer. Heat is predicted.
However, the humidity in South Florida presents a very new challenge.
“The humidity is different from nearly any other place on Earth, especially in Barcelona where I was,” Busquets explains. “But we are confident in our ability to adapt to any situation. “That improves the process.”
“We” include his former Barcelona colleague Lionel Messi, a seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and recently crowned World Cup winner, whom Inter Miami unveiled with Busquets on July 16. Busquets has slipped under the spotlight as Messi has received a lot of attention, which is understandable.
Only Messi can eclipse a player like Busquets, who has 32 championships with Barcelona and was a key member of Spain’s best-ever national squad, which won the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship. The Catalan-born 35-year-old is usually considered as the sport’s top holding midfielder. He announced his international retirement in December, following the World Cup in Qatar.
Busquets is seated in a backstage dressing area of the Broward County Performing Arts Center in Fort Lauderdale. In a few minutes, he’ll speak to media with Inter Miami boss Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who coached Busquets at Barcelona nearly a decade ago. Before this interview, Busquets tells The Athletic about how he and Messi settled on Miami, his thoughts on the United States, how Martino was treated at Barcelona, and more.
It’s the day before Busquets and Messi make their American soccer debut versus Cruz Azul in the newly established Leagues Cup. The tall and slim Busquets is dressed in an Inter Miami blazer and jean shorts. He repeatedly expresses his excitement about being at the club. He had no reservations about moving to Major League Soccer when his European club career concluded with his seventh La Liga championship with Barcelona. However, leaving home is always difficult. Busquets claims his feelings about leaving Barcelona are “OK,” but it’s apparent that the goodbye is still fresh in his mind.
“I appreciate everything here because everything has a beginning and a conclusion,” Busquets explains. “In this case, it was the end of a great chapter in Barcelona, many years of what I had come to know as home.”
Busquets modestly regards to himself as “a privileged man” for having achieved so much at such a large club as Barcelona. He also says what all big MLS signings say when they arrive in America: it’s a new experience, and he wants to win trophies with his new team while also helping the brand develop. But Inter Miami is a project unlike any other in the MLS.
