For the past two weeks, there was a rumor that Inter Miami CF made an offer for Juventus’ striker Gonzalo “Pipita” Higuaín to join the team this summer once the pandemic is under control and MLS resumes its season. Although those are just rumors, there are already a large amount of the Inter Miami fans that are not happy with the idea of seeing Higuaín playing for Miami.
There are many factors, or reasons why most fans oppose to this signing, but I think the main reasons are that most people feel that Higuaín is past his prime and is a bit too slow and not very technical. In fact, despite his more than 256 goals scored throughout his career, most fans still don’t consider him a world star, they don’t see him at the same level as Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Luis Suárez, Edinson Cavani and many others.
Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo holding the Serie A trophy.
The main reason why fans don’t consider him a player at the level of the players that I just mentioned is the lack of his technical abilities, and his fitness, which is something that has haunted him for many years already, since his Real Madrid playing era.
Another reason why most Inter Miami fans reacted so negatively to this rumor is that most of them are South Americans, many from Argentina, who still haven’t forgotten Higuaín’s missed goals in the 2014 World Cup and missed goals in the 2015, 2016 Copa América editions. Three consecutive world stage tournaments that Higuaín missed clear chances that would have given Argentina two Copa América titles and one World Cup, thus, giving Leo Messi the one cup that would consecrate him as the best footballer in history.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuaín during a 2018 World Cup game.
In the eyes of many soccer fans, the name Gonzalo Higuaín is a synonym of failure, as sad as it sounds, as cold as this may sound. This is what most people think whenever they hear his name. Soccer can be cruel at times and this is one of those times in which soccer cruelty applies to its maximum force.
As for me and many Inter Miami fans, one of the other reasons why we wouldn’t be happy with the signing of Higuaín is that we feel that he’s too old to come here. Yes, we know that MLS is known for bringing world soccer players past their primes, but at least those players that have come to MLS past their primes are in good physical conditions and are highly technical, that’s something that Higuaín lacks, technical abilities.
Higuaín, 32, joined Juventus in the 2016/2017 season.
Many people think that playing in MLS is easy, that most European players can play here without any problems, when in fact it’s the other way around. MLS is a tough league to play at, for one, there are long flights from one state to the next, different time zones, long bus rides, most teams fly coach, there’s little rest for the players when they arrive to different cities, many games are played during the day, summer days in states such as Florida, Georgia, LA, Dallas, and NY are very hot. Most European players aren’t used to playing at temperatures past 100 degrees.
During the 2014 Brazil World Cup, they had to implement water breaks during the games because of the high temperatures, very seldom you see water breaks in MLS during summer games. A lot of games are played at 2 pm in Miami, meaning, the temperature will be past 100 Degrees Fahrenheit. Imagine Higuaín playing for Miami during a hot mid-July game? Most likely he wouldn’t last the entire game because he’s not used to playing at such a high temperature.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo drinks water during a short break in a 2014 World Cup game.
It’s a lot easier for Higuaín to score goals in teams such as Juventus and Real Madrid, just look at the world class players that he was surrounded by. That wouldn’t be the case here in MLS. That means he would have to rely more on his own technical abilities to create chances of his own, and that will be a high problem for him.
Players such as Zlatan, David Beckham, David Villa, Kaká and many others didn’t find any problems scoring goals because these players are highly technical and are used to creating their own scoring chances, unlike Higuain, who pretty much served as a post in which the ball bounces off of him and goes into the net, something similar to Chicharito Hernández, who’s having a hard time scoring goals for LA Galaxy for the same reasons, lack of technical abilities.
Los Angeles Galaxy’s Javier Chicharito Hernández.
In conclusion, as an Inter Miami fan, I would like the team to focus more into bringing young players, young up and coming players that will build up the future of our team. We want Inter Miami to follow the footsteps of what Atlanta United has done since their inaugural season in which they brought young talent from South America, their gamble paid off and the team has already established themselves as a powerhouse in MLS.
They brought young players such as Miguel Almirón, who’s now playing for Newcastle United of the Premier League. They also brought Josef Martínez who has broken MLS scoring records, and now they brought Gonzalo Martínez from Argentina Primera División power house River Plate. The latter player could have gone to Europe or Mexico Liga MX, but he chose Atlanta United, a young team with no history but with high ambitions, that’s what most Inter Miami fans want.
Atlanta United’s striker Josef Martínez.
We want a team with high ambitions, to build up our team for our present and future. We don’t want old players from Europe to come here and play two years and then retire. We want players that will give us at least seven years at the highest level of their playing careers. We want a team that will compete to win every game, to win every title, we want to be the best in MLS, and why not, the American continent.
We have a great team of owners that are as ambitious as their fans, they don’t settle for less, and neither do us, the fans, thus the reason why we feel that Gonzalo Higuaín isn’t the player that we’re looking for. We need someone better, and if they do decide to bring someone his age, then try to sign Cavani, a proven goal scorer, highly technical and who’s still hungry in winning. As for now, all we can do is speculate, wait and see what happens, only time will tell, but I rather dream big and wish my team bring the best young players they can bring, players that will build our team and will give it their all for the entire 90 minutes on the pitch.
