On June 7, 2023, Leo Messi announced to the world, via a live interview with Spanish media, his seismic decision to join Inter Miami CF. And as much euphoria as it triggered around the club, it also set into motion a series of heavy lifts for the Herons’ soccer operations staff.
They would have to ramp up a midseason roster overhaul to provide new head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino with the necessary components to reinvent what was at the time a bottom-dwelling team into a competitive squad capable of maximizing Messi's gifts and the cadre of old friends and former FC Barcelona teammates who joined him in South Florida.
The acquisition of Diego Gómez via MLS’s Under-22 Initiative was one of the first levers in that process. And probably the most successful to date, given Wednesday's announcement that the 21-year-old Paraguayan has been voted as the No. 1 overall player on MLSsoccer.com's 22 Under 22 presented by BODYARMOR rankings.
For all the sky-high soccer IQ and transcendent quality Messi, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba carry, they would need energy, work rate and youthful vibrance around them if this ambitious Miami project was to truly take off.
“We knew we needed to bring in some legs,” Miami’s chief soccer officer and sporting director Chris Henderson explained to MLSsoccer.com last week. “That was one of our goals in recruiting the young players – how do they balance off each other? What attributes will they add to the rest of the group?
“Obviously you have veterans who have done everything and won and have experience. But you needed to have a guy in there who can get around, and he is that guy. When you look at the way we play when Diego Gómez is on the field for us, he's a major weapon for us, and he's been one of the key players in this Supporters’ Shield run.”
Playing with legends
After navigating a steep learning curve in his first months at IMCF last year, Gómez struck up a potent chemistry with Messi and Suárez in particular during the 2024 campaign, so often making the smart off-ball runs by which their superlative vision unlocks defenses.
That understanding is evident on the many occasions on which combination play among them has led to goals, whether the versatile Gómez is working in his preferred No. 8 role or deployed further forward, disrupting opponents’ buildups and bursting into space to spark attacking transitions.
“Diego's goal is superlative for the team tonight, he defined a pass, a goal, a goal from the recovery,” said Martino in Spanish after Gómez scored the clinching goal in Miami’s opening-day win over Real Salt Lake in February.
“All he works on is recovering balls; the truth is that for us today he even played in a position a little more advanced, he did so almost like a left winger, entering [the attack] quite a lot, and he settled into that position very well and found many balls behind the opposing midfielders. He is understanding the game more and more and then he has the conditioning, both physically and footballing-wise.”
With a relentless engine and relish for the physical side of the game, he also offers miles of selfless work on the other side of the ball week after week, reducing the demands on Busquets and the rest of the Herons’ rearguard.
“He is a very important player,” said the Spanish legend of Gómez in April, “for everything he gives us.”
All-around skillset
That well-roundedness is noticed and much appreciated by all of his teammates.
“Diego makes everything easy,” Federico Redondo, a regular central-midfield partner of Gómez, said in Spanish after a July win over Toronto FC. “He always gives you a passing option, he recovers the ball, he gives it to you. I have no words for such a player – playing with people like that always makes it easier for you.”
Gómez has also blossomed into a game-changer at the international level this year, spearheading Paraguay’s surprise title run in the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament with five goals, then helping La Albirroja advance out of group play in France while wearing the captain’s armband. He took another massive step forward with a stunning golazo for the senior team in a 1-0 upset of Brazil in World Cup qualifying action.
“He comes up in big moments,” said Henderson. “As a box-to box 8, he joins into the attack, he gets into the penalty box, he makes clever runs into spaces from midfield. He's very good at breaking up plays as well, not only in the attack, but defensively. He's really good at kind of hooking his foot around to steal balls from players’ feet.”
"He's a game-changer"
Henderson sees echoes of two of his iconic former teammates on the US men’s national team when he watches Gómez play.
“His change of pace, his acceleration,” he explained. “You wouldn't look at him right away and go, ‘oh that guy's really fast,’ but he's like Claudio Reyna used to be, where all of a sudden he's got the ball and he's just dribbling by people, and he's accelerating past them. And so you can really see during games not only fast, but how quick he is, and he's a game-changer.
“And then I would say he's a little bit of a pass and move [player],” Henderson added. “He can also get out of things on his own with just his first few steps, a little bit like Tab Ramos, where he can accelerate into spaces with the ball if it's open. So, yeah, he's been very good – adaptable and impactful.”
Gómez may also turn out to be a paradigm-shifting case study for Miami in the longer term.
The hard-running midfielder has made no secret of his desire to test himself in a top European league. While the allure of playing with Messi and working under Martino were factors in his move to Miami, so was the MLS success story of his countryman Miguel Almirón, who lit up the league with Martino at Atlanta United before a record-breaking transfer to Newcastle United in 2019.
“The history of Almirón coming in and doing so well [helped]; Tata’s very good at working with young players, giving them opportunities. I think his reputation with developing players is excellent, and that's the way it's been this year. I think the young guys have really stepped up in key moments,” said Henderson.
“He's a quiet boy, and I feel like he's always watching and observing and soaking things in,” he added of Gómez, a soft-spoken sort who grew up on a farm in rural southern Paraguay and remains devoted to his family back home. “He's really coachable. He just kind of blends in, and at times you look at him and you're like, wow, he is so young, whereas he has such an impact on the field, but as a person and in the group, he's young and just willing to learn and open.”
Overseas potential
While nothing has been officially announced yet, Gómez looks set to make a dream move this winter. Multiple media outlets have reported that he’ll move to English Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion in a transfer deal approaching $20 million, which would rank as one of the biggest such outgoing transactions in both MLS and Paraguayan soccer history.
“He is a footballer who has a very good present, but also an impressive future. So we will all be very happy if he manages to do it,” said Martino last month, calling such an outcome “also a small title” for IMCF’s player development outlook.
Speaking to media in August, the Argentine coach framed pathways like Gómez’s as Exhibit A of MLS’s evolution into a globally recognized cultivator of top young talent.
“I like to focus a lot more on the young footballers who come to the league and who change the way we look at footballers, especially Latin footballers, South Americans, the ones who still aspire to reach the first level,” he said. “And the first level, as we always say, is in Europe. So we can convince Diego to come here and develop and complete his evolution in a year, a year and a half or two years, and he can be sold. That is, from my point of view, fabulous to say; that is something that I have thought about since my arrival in Atlanta seven years ago, so I agree with that part, it seems to me that it is very important for growth.”
That’s some legacy for a 21-year-old. The sky’s the limit for Gómez, and by extension, his rise provides a route map for others to follow.
