Garber Breaks His Silence on Tense Messi Exchange, Then Calls Him the Greatest Athlete Ever

A heated exchange in the middle of a celebration, and weeks later, the man at the center of it offering something close to an apology, though not quite. More like admiration. That's what came out of Don Garber, MLS commissioner, when he spoke publicly for the first time about that tense moment with Lionel Messi following Inter Miami's Campeones Cup triumph.

The episode took place in September, right after Inter Miami CF beat Cruz Azul 2-0 in the Campeones Cup final. Messi opened the scoring in the 24th minute and later set up Casemiro for the second goal. Nothing out of the ordinary there, except for a scene the cameras caught: Messi and Garber locked in a visibly tense conversation before the Inter Miami captain went off to celebrate with his teammates and family.

What exactly was said? According to Garber himself, that stays between the two of them. But in an interview with Front Office Sports on Tuesday, the commissioner didn't dodge the subject, and rather than play it down, he turned it into praise.

What happened there is between Leo and me, it's not something I'm going to discuss with you. But I admire him, I appreciate him, and I think that's what makes Leo Messi the greatest player who has ever played soccer. And I'll say something else: the greatest athlete of all time.Don Garber

Garber didn't stop there, placing Messi in a conversation that usually doesn't include soccer players. He brought up Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan as examples of athletes who competed with an intensity that made them one of a kind, and he put the Argentine right there with them.

The best players in the world have passion. Legendary players have more than passion. Leo played on Saturday, scored a couple of goals and had assists coming off a FIFA window where he played for Argentina, at 39 years old. He's leading the race for the Golden Boot. He's leading the race for MVP.Don Garber

And the numbers back him up, at least on the field. Messi has 23 goals and 13 assists in MLS this season, leads the race for the 2026 Golden Boot, and sits second in the league's regular season assist standings.

Not Their First Friction

This isn't the first time there's been tension between Garber and Messi. Back in 2025, the commissioner joked that the Argentine star probably didn't even want to speak to him, after the league suspended Messi and his former teammate Jordi Alba for skipping that year's MLS All-Star Game.

I don't think he wants to talk to me. I didn't treat him like any other player in that decision. So he's probably not going to be in Miami anytime soon, nor am I going to spend time or do media appearances with Leo.Don Garber

He later defended that call with a pretty blunt take on what it means to run a league: if you don't make tough decisions, you lose the respect of the owners, and the media is going to criticize you no matter what, whether you suspend players or not.

Over time, things cooled off. In fact, Garber and Messi crossed paths again in a far friendlier setting: the 2025 MLS Cup final, where the commissioner himself handed the trophy to the Inter Miami captain.

These days, the Florida club sits second in the Eastern Conference with 49 points through 28 games, and the tension from that Campeones Cup celebration has, at least on this side of things, turned into pure praise for a player who, according to Garber, keeps rewriting what it means to be a legend of the sport.