Where we left off last year
2025 season: 65 points, 3rd in the Eastern Conference, 3rd in MLS
With Lionel Messi lifting MLS Cup, mostly.
Along the way to doing just that, Inter Miami played more games in a single season than any team in any other season in MLS’s entire existence. Across all competitions, Miami played a whopping 58 games. While they stumbled out of the Concacaf Champions Cup at the second-to-last hurdle and they fell to the Seattle Sounders in the Leagues Cup final, Miami emerged from the group stage at the Club World Cup, becoming the first MLS team to beat a UEFA team in a meaningful competition.
That Miami managed to balance deep tournament runs during the season with perhaps the most dominant playoff run in league history was truly impressive — and they’ll be trying to do the same thing in 2026.
What changed in the offseason
Notable arrivals:
- German Berterame, ST: Raise your hand if you thought this was the direction Inter Miami was going to go with their third Designated Player spot. No one? That’s what I thought. Between the whole “playing Lionel Messi as a No. 9 helped us win MLS Cup” thing and the fact that Berterame isn’t the absolute biggest name around, I didn’t have this $15 million signing on my bingo card. Of course, that’s not to say the 27-year-old is a bad pickup. The Mexican national teamer was a reliable scorer for Monterrey (something, say, Austin’s Brandon Vazquez was not), gives Miami additional personnel flexibility from one game to the next, and knows Concacaf well. For an Inter Miami team that have spouted their aspirations to win the Concacaf Champions Cup, adding a guy who’s won a few games in Mexico is a reasonable play.
- Dayne St. Clair, GK: Yeah, so, Inter Miami might be creating a superteam. St. Clair, who took less money from Miami in free agency than was on offer at his old club in Minnesota, joins to fill perhaps Miami’s biggest hole from last year: consistent goalkeeping. Sure, Rocco Rios Novo turned it on once he wrestled the starting job away from Oscar Ustari. But St. Clair has been a consistently impactful shot-stopper since becoming a starter in MLS back in 2022. He’s the reigning Goalkeeper of the Year for a reason — and his arrival in Miami should terrify the rest of the league.
