Inter Miami Sporting Director: When We Call, Players Will Come

On this week’s edition of the Pitch Invasion podcast, Inter Miami Sporting Director Paul McDonough sat down with me to talk about the future of the club.

We were at Central Broward Regional Park to watch the tryouts for the Inter Miami academy, which is due to start later this year.

The work has begun. This September, 120 players between the ages of 12 and 19 will wear our crest and play for our inaugural Academy teams.
6,000 Players were scouted with 550 being invited to try out for a spot, starting this week. https://t.co/CdkXLFXCMU #thisismiami pic.twitter.com/lcl19cSByf

— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) April 3, 2019

But we also got to discussing how this MLS expansion club will be built, and specifically how the Designated Player spots will be used.

For the uninitiated, MLS does have a salary cap. But the league allows its teams to buy up to 3 players that can go over the salary cap to an unlimited amount of salary.

And McDonough doesn’t think Miami will have any trouble attracting some of the best in the soccer world.

“I think Miami is going to be a place where when we pick the phone up and call people, they’re going to want to come.

So I think designated players that are DP’s in other teams within MLS won’t be DP’s here. I think the DP’s have to be a certain level of player.

A global player.

A global superstar.

Or young exciting players that we buy, play for us for a couple of years, and then move to Europe.”

Inter’s choices for who will be the first Designated Players to play for the club will go a long way in determining their success both on and off the field.