Gerardo Martino dismisses speculation about Neymar moving to Messi and Suarez moving to Inter Miami

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

During a team training session ahead of Saturday's playoff game in Atlanta, Martino was asked about the possibility of Neymar joining the team in 2025 after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Brazilian winger would be available for $26 million Bought waterfront property in Miami.

“Will everyone who buys here come to play?” asked Martino, laughing.

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

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

Could he imagine a scenario with all five together?

“With (Lionel Messi) and the rest of the boys already here, anything can happen,” Martino said. “What I can’t imagine is how the salary cap would be implemented if the league didn’t make it more flexible. After you write it or say it in the media, everything is fine, nothing happens, there are no consequences. But what would the implementation look like? Nobody explains that. And the reality is that the MLS has one thing: the rules are strict and cannot 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 by The athlete that MLS is considering changing the format of its calendar as early as 2026, and Martino joked that those changes would come in two years, not a few months.

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

“This is nonsense, you have to speak coherently. First you have to analyze what the league offers and whether this is really possible. From this base it 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 would not be able to fit into Inter Miami's squad as it is currently constructed – at least not as a designated player.

In MLS, teams' ability to spend money on rosters is severely limited, with the majority of spending coming from the top three to six spots on the roster.

Teams have two options when it comes to putting together their squad. You can have three Designated Players (DPs): players whose budget hit, calculated from acquisition cost and salary, is unlimited, but who reach the cap on the “maximum budget fee”; and three initiative players under age 22: players age 22 or younger whose acquisition costs do not count toward the cap but whose salary is limited to the league's “maximum salary budget fee.”

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

Okay, take a breath. Rub your eyes.

Let's try to figure out what this means for Miami.

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

It's important to recognize that this format opens up more room for teams, with U-22 players hitting the budget at a lower game count and the league providing that $2 million in GAM that can be used to buy up other players' playing time .

In 2025, DPs will hit the cap at $743,750, while U-22 players will hit the cap at either $150,000 (age 20 or younger) or $200,000 (age 21 or 22 ) will be achieved. That means Inter Miami saves about $550,000 in cap space by adding a fourth U-22 player instead of a third DP – and that doesn't take into account the additional $2 million in GAM. This is important for Inter Miami because they have several players who earn a lot of money but are not DPs, including Alba, Suarez, Julian Gressel and Nico Freire.

To use Neymar, Inter Miami would have to play out one of two scenarios.

The first is simple: Neymar would have to agree to a similar deal to Alba and Suárez. This means you get a discount to play with your friends. This was made easier for Alba in part by the fact that he was still being paid millions of dollars by Barcelona. Neymar is out of contract in Saudi Arabia in the summer. Would there be a payout 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 decide to switch to a 3-and-3 format: three designated players and three U-22 players. This would be very difficult to achieve on several levels. First, Miami would have to get rid of not one, but two U-22 players. So while the sale of Gomez to Brighton appears to have been completed in January, Miami would have to move another U-22 player as Facundo Farias is on a U-22 contract and will be returning from his season-ending injury.

Then, after selling or trading a U-22 player, Miami would have to make sure they have the cap space necessary to add a third DP at $743,750 – which could theoretically be easier than signing him to do so Figure of $1,744, but not if you exclude the $2 million in allocation money the team receives from MLS in the 2-and-4 format.

In other words, making Neymar a DP would likely require selling several players, both from the team's under-22 arsenal and the rest of the squad.

Not impossible, but difficult. And complicated.

(Francois Nel/Getty Images)