WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 06: Andres Cantor speaks during the FIFA World Cup 2026 official match schedule announcement on December 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Hector Vivas - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
FIFA via Getty Images
The recent debate regarding whether Lionel Messi should behave like other stars in American sports and make himself regularly available to local media covering Inter Miami is totally fair.
But as Telemundo’s Andres Cantor notes, there is little reason to believe Messi’s aversion is anything other than a genuine personality quirk, and one that likely blunts his own total earnings and weal.
In a video interview on Monday, the famed Argentine-American play-by-play man noted in particular the clash between the reputation of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the field, and their earnings off of it.
After more than a decade of near-even competition, Messi’s Copa America and World Cup triumphs with Argentina in 2021 and 2022, respectively, have put the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner in a clear late-career lead for all but the most die-hard Portugal or Real Madrid fans.
Yet it’s Ronaldo who holds the slight total wealth edge, estimated by some analysts to be north of $1 billion.
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“If Messi would’ve had the charisma of Cristiano, he’s a billionaire already,” Cantor said. “But I think he’s fine the way he is.
"He admitted last week that he understands perfect English but he’s shy on speaking it. It’s really hard – I always try to figure how a person of that stature and that notoriety and being the most known person lives. So I think he’s doing fine.”
Cantor clearly can’t and won’t claim to be neutral. He admits that calling Argentina matches are the most difficult for him at the World Cup because he has to attempt to balance his personal passion for the national team of his homeland with the need to serve the United States’ multi-national Spanish speaking audience. (That demographic is led by a Mexican-American majority, followed by those with Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban and Dominican lineage.)
At the same time, it’s hard to deny his point. Messi still draws enormous crowds wherever he goes, but his commercial presence is pretty subdued compared to the prime of others who have existed in a similar athletic orbit: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or LeBron James, for example.
If there are comparisions to American sports superstars, they may be in baseball, where Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, who have both held the mantle of best player alive at times in their careers, have fulfilled American media obligations but remained relatively understated while doing so.
Nico Cantor, Andres’ son who works as an English-language analyst for CBS Sports, echoed the sentiment that it’s clear the Argentine No. 10 agonizes over how his words might be taken.
“I think when Messi speaks, he’s so conscious about every word that he says will make a headline and will go viral, and it will go around the world. So Messi has never been a speaker," he said. "Messi has never been outspoken externally, at least, in situations that are good or in situations that are bad. So I think this is right along the lines of Leo, and it’ll pass over eventually.”
The counterpoint is that if people got more used to Messi speaking regularly, it would become more routine and those words would not be parsed as painstakingly over time. Clearly, there hasn’t been anyone in Messi’s inner circle to make that argument successfully, though he at least has given periodic interviews with Apple TV, the league’s worldwide streaming partner, with whom Messi shares revenue.
From the outside, what probably makes Messi’s situation more difficult for those covering his club team is that increasingly, the others in his orbit who could share some of that media burden don’t appear particularly willing or skilled at it either.
Andres Cantor says that appears to include Hoyos, the Argentine one-time FC Barcelona youth coach who has served as a surrogate father figure throughout his career and now Miami’s interim manager.
"Guillermo Hoyos, from the little that I’ve listened to him, he’s not very talkative either," Cantor quipped.
Indeed, Hoyos answered only one question following Miami’s shocking 4-3 home defeat to Orlando City on May 2, in which the visitors rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
Following Saturday’s 4-2 rebound win for Miami at Toronto FC, he spoke of the need for the football community, including the media, to protect the all-time great, a message that left many observers surprised and a little confused. Cantor included.
“Honestly, I believe knowing the Argentine psyche, (this is) probably what he meant," Cantor explained. “That he’s such a big star that needs to be protected as much the LeBron James’ of this world. But not in the direct sense that nobody should foul him or … . Honestly I don’t know what to make of what he said because honestly I did not understand it.”
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