Inter Miami CF: 2020 Preview – Basement battle ahead?

With less than a month to go until the start of the 2020 MLS campaign, we are taking a look at how each team has evolved since last year, and their chances this term. This time, we look at Inter Miami CF.

There is no last season when it comes to MLS play for Inter Miami CF as they are one of the two new teams to enter the league for the 2020 campaign. The whole process began six years ago when David Beckham, who had spent the latter part of his footballing career in MLS with the LA Galaxy, led the group that would go on to own an expansion franchise in Miami.

However, there were several stumbling blocks away, with the major one being the lack of a proposed site for a brand new stadium, which took time to work out. In August 2014, six months after the original announcement came, the league’s commissioner, Don Garber, reiterated that the expansion would not be approved until a downtown stadium plan was secured.

In 2018, four years after the ownership group first announced that they were pursuing the idea of having a team, they were awarded the 25th MLS franchise, with their first season coming in 2020.

It had been a long time in waiting for Beckham and the rest of the ownership group, with six teams having started playing in MLS prior to Inter Miami’s inaugural season.

Orlando City SC and New York City FC came into the league in 2015, with Atlanta United and Minnesota United following two years later. Los Angeles FC made their bow in the top flight in 2018, with FC Cincinnati the sixth side to come in since the agreement was put in place, starting their debut campaign in 2019.

Two days before the New Year, the club announced that Diego Alonso would become the first manager in the club’s history, with the former Uruguayan international midfielder coming to the States after being C.F. Monterrey manager, where he had lifted the CONCACAF Champions League title in the early part of 2019.