New England Revolution

Will Lionel Messi play on the turf at Gillette Stadium?

Messi and Inter Miami play the Revolution on Saturday in Foxborough.

By Hayden Bird

April 22, 2024

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The Revolution are set to play in front of a record crowd when Lionel Messi and Inter Miami come to Gillette Stadium this weekend, but the expected audience of more than 60,000 will flock to Foxborough likely not knowing more than an hour beforehand if the legendary World Cup winner will be in the starting lineup.

Messi, 36, will be the latest soccer superstar to grapple with the issue of the artificial field turf at Gillette Stadium when Inter Miami take on the Revolution at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Since signing with MLS-based Inter Miami in 2023 (making his debut for the team last summer by delivering a dramatic game-winning goal), Messi’s presence has generated enormous crowds everywhere that he’s played.

More than 72,000 showed up to watch him in Kansas City two weeks ago, with Nashville also setting an attendance record this past Saturday against Inter Miami. Messi scored goals in both games (he has seven goals and six assists in six MLS games so far this season).

Yet there is never a guarantee of high-level soccer stars playing when their team travels to face the Revolution in New England. The debate over playing on turf inevitably comes to the forefront. The Revolution, sharing Gillette Stadium with the Patriots, are one of the six teams in MLS (out of 29 in total) to play on some version of synthetic turf.

In the past, other notable players—David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Thierry Henry—have avoided playing at Gillette Stadium (though both Beckham and Henry ultimately did start games there). Turf surfaces have long been perceived as posing greater injury risks.

“As a professional athlete, you can’t play a game like soccer on that sort of field,” Beckham said of playing on turf after his own blockbuster MLS signing in 2007. “What it does to your body as a soccer player, you’re in bits for three days after that.”

The question now is whether Messi will go against the trend.

There are positive signs for New England soccer fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the Argentine icon. Messi debunked the fear that he would simply refuse to play on turf during his first Miami press conference in 2023.

“The truth is my youth was spent on artificial turf, my whole life was on that pitch,” he told reporters, per The Athletic. “Truth is it’s been a while since I’ve played on artificial turf, but I have no problem adapting myself again.”

Since that time, he has played a full 90 minutes on turf once, doing so in the regular season finale last October against Charlotte FC. While he skipped another turf game in 2023 (in Atlanta), it may have been partly due to scheduling, as Miami also had a game the following Wednesday.

And in terms of the current schedule, what was arguably the biggest threat to his possible appearance on Saturday has already been removed: Inter Miami, like the Revolution, were knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup in the quarterfinals. Had Miami made it to the semifinal stage, Messi would have had to theoretically play games on weekdays before and after this weekend’s matchup with New England.

With the possibility of a congested schedule removed, Messi’s odds of playing at Gillette Stadium went up.

The timing of the game against New England also seems favorable from a local fan’s perspective. As Messi and several teammates will be away this summer (playing for their national teams in the 2024 Copa América), Miami head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino recently said that he views the next month as a time to get the most out of his stars.

According to Miami Herald reporter Michelle Kaufman, Martino is “determined to rack up as many points as possible in the MLS standings over the next month before the Copa América pulls players away in June and July.”

The bigger concern for fans hoping to see the full extent of Miami’s talented roster may be the status of Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez.

Suarez, 37, reportedly avoided artificial turf while playing in Brazil last season due to knee pain. His status will also be worth watching.

Another former Barcelona player, Miami left back Jordi Alba, is set to miss the match as part of a multi-week recovery, per Kaufman:

So, will Messi play? It’s impossible (and irresponsible) to try and definitively say this far ahead of kickoff. Yet the usual factor (turf) isn’t as much of a dealbreaker for Messi as it was with previous MLS stars.

In addition, he is not currently injured, having only just returned to full fitness after missing four games earlier in the season with a hamstring issue.

There’s also this: Messi has played at Gillette Stadium before, leading Argentina to a 3-1 win over Venezuela in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Copa América Centenario. Of course, that was a game played on a temporarily-installed grass field (as required by FIFA).

Messi’s performance that day? It was, by his own standards, routine excellence: An exquisite assist, and a give-and-go goal.