After just one season, Venezuelan forward Josef Martinez, a former Major League Soccer MVP, left Inter Miami with great fanfare in January.
Jake LaCava, who played sporadically, and Martinez’s 2024 contract options were turned down when Inter Miami revealed their postseason squad choices on Wednesday. With just two players remaining from the team’s inaugural campaign, Victor Ulloa has an expiring contract and will not be joining the squad again.
Chris Henderson, the sports director, stated, “We’re proud of building a team that was able to win the first title in Inter Miami history this year and will continue to look to build on that to find further success moving forward.” We will now turn our attention to 2024.
Let’s now turn our attention to 2024. Next season, we want to return even stronger and prepared to fight for even more.
Before moving to Miami, Martinez scored 98 goals in 134 games. In 2018, he won the Golden Boot, MLS Cup Final MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and league MVP, becoming him the most decorated player in MLS history for a single season. He guided Atlanta United to the MLS Cup victory in 2018.
He had a hit-and-miss season despite being brought to Miami to replace retired Argentine Gonzalo Higuain. The squad embarked on an extended losing trend after he failed to score in his first nine games. With three goals in the Leagues Cup and two in the Playoffs, he ended the season with seven goals in 27 MLS appearances.
The US Open Cup.
Tata Martino, the coach of Inter Miami, declared following the team’s season-ending defeat to Charlotte FC that Martinez was not planning to play for the team the next season, hence he did not go to the match.
Martinez’s departure makes room for the possible acquisition of Luis Suarez, a player from Uruguay who has long been linked to Inter Miami. Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba were all teammates of Suarez at FC Barcelona before they all joined Miami this season. It is anticipated that Suarez would end his deal with Gremio, a Brazilian team, this winter.
Reporters were informed by Martino that the club has two scenarios for 2024: one with Luis and one without him.
The remainder of the Inter Miami roster as of the start of the offseason looks like this:
• 2024: Alba, Noah Allen, Tomás Avilés, Edison Azcona, Shanyder Borgelin, Busquets, Drake Callender, Leonardo Campana, Benjamin Cremaschi, CJ dos Santos, Facundo Farías, Diego Gómez, Gregore, Corentin Jean, Sergii Kryvtsov, Chris McVey, Messi, Kamal Miller, Santiago Morales, Jean Mota, Franco Negri, Harvey Neville, Emerson Rodríguez (on loan with Mexican team Santos, which has an old purchase option), David Ruiz, Nicolás Stefanelli, Felipe Valencia, DeAndre Yedlin
• Ian Fray, Cole Jensen, Robbie Robinson, Ryan Sailor, Lawson Sunderland, and Robert Taylor had their contract options exercised.
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