Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami has shaken up its front office following a reported incident after an exhibition match.
Raul Sanllehi, the MLS club’s president of football operations, was re-assigned to a role dealing with institutional relations, according to soccer insider Tom Bogert, and he has been moved to the team offices in Coral Gables.
The come comes a little more than a week after Messi and Sanllehi had an exchanging of words while the club was in Las Vegas.
Sanllehi got on a players and coaches-only bus, which led to the exchange between the global soccer icon and the Inter Miami exec, according to the report.
The club had been in Vegas for a preseason match against Liga MX side Club America.
In a statement to Bogert, Inter Miami called the decision “pre-planned.”
Guillermo Hoyos takes over the role now and it’s hard to ignore the close relationship that Messi has with him.
Hoyos and Messi go back to his days as a Barcelona Academy coach and he has been with Miami since Messi arrived in the summer of 2023, serving as the organization’s academy director of methodology.
“He was my footballing dad,” Messi told reporters in 2010, according to GIVEMESPORT. “He’s helped me a lot since I came to Barça. He was always with me, showing me things and has brought me to where I am today, the first division. I’m grateful that he is my footballing godfather.”
Inter Miami is in the middle of a preseason tour, which begins its Central and South American legs this week with a stop in Lima Peru before the club plays games in Panama and Honduras.
The MLS regular season begins next month with Inter Miami opening its schedule with a match at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale against New York City FC.
