Messi show rocks the house

Superstar’s first game on Canadian soil ends with Montreal fans chanting his name

- JOE CALLAGHAN

Inter Miami's Lionel Messi gets by CF Montreal defender Joel Waterman on Saturday in Montreal.

Bienvenue Leo. Come back early and often.

Lionel Messi’s first appearance on Canadian soil arrived Saturday night, 21 seasons into his wondrous career, his magical little life. In some corners it was heralded as an occasion to match Muhammad Ali’s first trip north or Pelé’s Canadian debut.

But with visits to Vancouver and Toronto already on the list for 2024, and Messi’s Argentina facing Canada in June’s Copa America opener, Saturday night at Stade Saputo was more of a let’s-get-familiar thing. Montreal duly made him and Inter Miami welcome. Not welcome enough to add to his recordshattering run of MLS goals and assists, but a 3-2 victory for the visitors ended with huge swathes of a sellout crowd chanting his name.

A historic evening had started in the very same fashion.

Somewhere around 5:45 p.m. a slow roar rumbled up Rue Sherbrooke Est. The chants of “Messi, Messi” took time to gather steam only because the perimeter around which fans had gathered was pushed 80 metres back from its usual place — and then fortified. “It’s a footballer, not the bloody G7!” a regular visitor quipped upon reaching the added layers of fencing.

Still, up the roar rumbled and with it came Miami’s team bus. When Messi and his All-Stars alighted — former Barcelona teammates Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets added to the roster along with currently injured Jordi Alba to make the Argentine feel at home — things got really loud. They’d been loud the night before, too, when hundreds gathered to catch a glimpse of Messi getting off the same bus at the team’s Ritz-Carlton base here.