Kevin Egan has been around since the early days. He is, by modern standards, a veteran of the MLS media landscape, having covered the league, in some form since the early 2010s. The current iteration is far different. Lionel Messi is, of course, the headliner, the Argentine and his-now eight Ballons d'Or shifting the landscape when he moved to the States in 2023.
But Egan, who knows what it looks like to watch a veteran phone it in, says the Argentine is as fiery as ever.
"What I enjoy most about it is, is that he's such a competitor within the league," Egan tells GOAL. "A lot of big names have come here in the past, and, well, they've been past it, and it hasn't worked out. And there's been all the talk of the retirement League - 'retirement league' and Messi have not been mentioned once in the same sentence."
But Inter Miami are far more than "just the Messi show." They are a side reshaped under new manager Javier Mascherano, far more balanced than the team that lost to Atlanta United in 2024 MLS Playoffs. They aren't the only contenders, though, in Egan's view.
"I'm a Columbus Crew guy. The star for Columbus is Wilfried Nancy, and I don't think you can say that about any other team in Major League Soccer," he says.
He knows a thing or two about this all. The Irishman leads MLS 360, Apple TV's flagship program covering Major League Soccer. It's chaotic, Egan admits, but he loves it.
"I love the energy you can bring to that show. You welcome people into a show like you'd welcome them into your house for a party," he says. "Like you decide how you're going to open the door, the energy you give, the music, the food you put on, all those things every time you host a party in your house."
Egan talked Messi and Miami, Kevin De Bruyne and Cavan Sullivan in the latest edition of Mic’d Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL US taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.
NOTE: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
