Gerardo Martino dismisses speculation about Neymar joining Messi and Suarez at Inter Miami

Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino said speculation about Neymar joining Inter Miami is just that – speculation – and will likely require a change in Major League Soccer (MLS) salary rules to be a real possibility .

During the team’s training ahead of Saturday’s play-off match in Atlanta, Martino was asked about the possibility of Neymar joining the team in 2025, following a Wall Street Journal report that the Brazilian winger was making a plot had purchased the water in Miami for $26 million.

“Everyone who buys here at home comes to play?” Martino asked, laughing.

“I arrived in Barcelona at the same time as (Neymar). It was a good year and for me the opportunity to coach such highly regarded players will always be a very special memory. Nothing more than that,” he said.

Reporters continued to press Martino about the possibility of a reunion, given that four former Barcelona players – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets – have already reunited with the South Florida MLS club.

Could he imagine a scenario with all five together?

“With Lionel Messi and the rest of the guys already here, anything can happen,” Martino said. “What I can’t imagine is how the league would make the salary cap more flexible, how it would be implemented. After you write it or say it in the media, it’s all good, nothing happens, there are no consequences. But what would the implementation look like? Nobody explains that. And the reality is that if there’s one thing the MLS has going for it, it’s that the rules are strict and can’t be broken unless the MLS decides to change.”

“What’s happening is throwing away names just to throw them away.”

A reporter pointed out a recent report of The Athletics that MLS is considering changing the format of its calendar as early as 2026, and Martino joked that those changes would happen in two years, not a few months.

“The truth is that you cannot talk so easily and freely about whether a player can come or not,” Martino said. “It seems to me that when we talk about this, a different kind of support is needed. We can’t talk or name a player because he bought a house here or has a girlfriend from Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s nonsense, you have to speak convincingly. First you need to analyze what the competition has to offer and whether it is really possible. From that basis, this is impossible today, so there is no reason to continue the conversation.”

What would Miami have to do to sign Neymar?

Martino is right. Under MLS rules, Neymar could not fit into Inter Miami’s roster as currently constructed – at least not as a designated player.

In the MLS, teams are heavily limited in how their owners can spend money on rosters, with the majority of spending focused on the top three to six spots on the roster.

Teams are given two options to build their roster. They can have three designated players (DPs): players whose budget, calculated based on acquisition costs and salary, is unlimited, but who reach the limit at the “maximum budget allowance”; and three initiative players under 22: players aged 22 or younger whose acquisition costs do not count towards the cap, but whose salaries are limited to the league’s “maximum salary budget costs.”

Teams can also choose to hire only two designated players and have four “U-22 players.” These teams will also receive a payment of up to $2 million in “allocation money,” which is essentially an accounting currency that provides additional cap space in the form of “dollars.”

Okay, take a deep breath. Rub your eyes.

Let’s try to figure out what that means for Miami.

Currently, Inter Miami has opted for the 2-and-4 format: two DPs, Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets, and four U-22s: Tomás Avilés, Diego Gómez, Federico Redondo and Benjamin Cremaschi.

It is important to realize that this format provides more cap space for teams, with U-22 players hitting the budget with a lower cap number and the league offering $2 million in GAM, which can be used to build cap buy off hits from other players.

In 2025, DPs will reach the cap at $743,750, while U-22s will reach the cap at $150,000 (20 years or younger) or $200,000 (21 or 22 years). That means Inter Miami saves about $550,000 in cap space by taking a fourth U-22 instead of a third DP – and that’s without taking into account the extra $2 million in GAM. That’s important for Inter Miami because they have several players who make a lot of money but aren’t DPs, including Alba, Suarez, Julian Gressel and Nico Freire.

To match Neymar, Inter Miami needs one of two scenarios to play out.

The first is simple: Neymar should agree to an agreement similar to Alba and Suarez. That is, take a discount to play with his friends. That was partly made easier for Alba because he was still paid many millions of dollars from Barcelona. Neymar’s contract expires in Saudi Arabia next summer. Would there be a payoff if he agreed to leave early? Would he be willing to earn a maximum of $1.744 million in 2025?

If so, he could fit — as long as Miami finds a way to cut salary elsewhere to accommodate his arrival.

Second, Miami could choose to switch to a 3-and-3 format: three designated players and three U-22s. This would be very difficult to achieve on multiple levels. First, Miami should cut not one, but two U-22s. So while the sale of Gomez to Brighton appears to be completely done before January, Miami would have to move another U-22 as Facundo Farias is on a U-22 deal and is coming back from his season-ending injury.

Then, after selling or trading a U-22 player, Miami would have to ensure they had the requisite cap space to accommodate a third DP who would hit the books for that $743,750 – which in theory could be easier than hiring him for that. A $1,744 number, but not without losing the $2 million in allocation money the team gets from the MLS in the 2-and-4 format.

In other words, making Neymar a DP would likely necessitate the sale of several players, both from the team’s arsenal of U-22 players and from the rest of the roster.

Not impossible, but difficult. And complicated.

(Francois Nel/Getty Images)