Julian Gressel’s MLS “madness”
The fourth division kicker who now serves Lionel Messi
By Heiko Oldörp
May 12, 2024, 5:59 p.m
In Germany, Julian Gressel has not played a game in the top three leagues. In Major League Soccer, however, the Franconian is living his big dream as a footballer this season – because he is playing with Lionel Messi at Inter Miami.
When Julian Gressel currently talks about his everyday life, he often uses one word. A word that says more than many long sentences. “Craziness.” In conversations with n-tv.de it comes up again and again. There is also a smiling, sometimes even mischievous facial expression. Maybe that’s exactly how lottery winners look.
And Julian Gressel is a kind of lottery winner. Not financially, but from a sporting perspective. He has been playing in North America’s professional soccer league, Major League Soccer, since 2017 – and he has even won the local championship twice in 2018 and 2023. But this season is different. Completely different. Because Gressel is wearing the pink Inter Miami jersey this season. And Inter Miami has Lionel Messi. So midfielder Gressel is the man behind Messi in Miami. Craziness.
From fourth division kicker to Messi teammate
“Leo,” says Gressel, “comes across as normal” and is “a nice guy.” It almost sounds as if he is not talking about perhaps the best player in football history, but rather about one of his former teammates at FC Eintracht Bamberg. Gressel played a total of 32 games in the Bavarian Regional League for the Franconian club in the 2012/13 season.
The opponents were, among others, FV Illertissen, SV Seligenporten and SC Eltersdorf. Fourth league. German amateur football, maximum semi-profit. There wasn’t enough for him back home. And now this Julian Gressel from Neustadt an der Aisch is still jetting through North America with Lionel Andres Messi and, as in the pre-season with test matches in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Japan, even around the world.
As he thinks about it, that lottery-winning grin inevitably comes back to his face. “It’s crazy how he plays,” says Gressel about Messi. Of course, millions of other people have come to this conclusion over the past two decades. Too often the Rastelli from Rosario had incredible, incomparable and unforgettable performances.
He conjures, shines and entertains
And at 36 years old, he still offers spectators what they expect for their entrance fee, even in what is certainly a second-rate MLS. He conjures up magic, shines and entertains – in front of sometimes more than 70,000 fans in huge American football stadiums, to which the clubs go especially because of him. The 1.70 meter tall exceptional footballer sparked a real Messi mania between Washington and Vancouver.
And Gressel doesn’t experience all of this in front of the television, not even from his seat in the stadium or through any stories. No, he is there always and everywhere. Messi on the pitch. Messi in the dressing room. Messi in the hotel, on the bus, on the plane. “It’s special that I have a front row seat like this,” says the 30-year-old with a hint of gratitude in his voice.
The blonde German is a kind of link between the stars at Inter Miami – in addition to Messi, these are Spain’s former world champion Sergio Busquets, his compatriot Jordi Alba and Uruguay’s old striker Luis Suárez – and the younger players. Because Gressel now knows the country and the league very well. In 2013 he came to the USA from the Bavarian Regional League and initially played for the university team at Providence College in Rhode Island for four years. Then he moved to Atlanta United in the MLS.
America’s most attractive soccer address
His then Atlanta coach is also his current coach in Miami: Gerardo, “Tata” Martino. The 61-year-old trained Messi at FC Barcelona in 2013/14 – and then for three years with the Argentine national team. The fact that they are all in Miami now, the Gressels, Martinos, Suarez, Busquests and Albas, is solely due to Messi. By moving last summer, he made the club the most attractive soccer address in the USA – for players and fans.
But of course Gressel also sees and experiences the Messi that others don’t see. How he behaves in the locker room, in the team meeting, on the drive to the stadium. That is, when there are no cameras and microphones. And that’s why he knows “how touched” the superstar is “by these people who are calling out to him, who are waiting for him in front of the hotel.” Messi, says Gressel, is always smiling and “already appreciates” everything. No airs and graces, no arrogance, no blindly staring at your own cell phone.
Jokes, yes, taunts about the 2014 World Cup final, no
And otherwise the eight-time world footballer of the year is “a completely normal person,” says Gressel. Someone who makes jokes and whom he can sometimes “tease a little”. But not with the loss of the 2014 World Cup final against Germany. Gressel emphasizes that Messi is still reacting sensitively to the 1-0 defeat after extra time in Rio’s Maracana on July 13, 2014. And that despite the fact that he was able to lead Argentina to the long-awaited World Cup title in Qatar in 2022.
Miami is top of the MLS table after twelve games, Messi and Suarez are joint top scorers with ten goals each. And it would hardly surprise anyone if co-owner David Beckham’s club became champions in the autumn. For Gressel it would be the third MLS championship. If that were to actually happen, the man who once didn’t make it past the fourth division in Germany would be just as successful in North America as Franz Beckenbauer, who won three championships with Cosmos New York in MLS’s predecessor league, the NASL. Craziness.