Lionel Messi makes a splash, Lorenzo Insigne flops big time & the winners & losers of the 2023 MLS season

In 2023, there may not have been a bigger winner in global soccer than Inter Miami.

Lionel Messi, to many the greatest soccer player to ever live, arrived in South Florida. It's still a sentence and an idea that remains hard to fathom. After so many years terrorizing the rest of the world, Messi decided his next step was to come to MLS and, more specifically, David Beckham's project on South Beach.

That decision paid immediate dividends on the field. The club went on to lift the Leagues Cup while embarking on a run more exciting than any this league has ever seen. That stretch alone justified the hype that came with Messi's arrival and, even if they did fall just short of a spot in the MLS Playoffs, that hype will carry into 2024.

Messi has arrived and isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Now, Inter Miami is positioned to build itself into a superpower unlike any American soccer has ever seen. As for the rest of us, we'll just have to see what comes next.

He has another big job now, so don't feel too bad for Neville. He'll be getting the chance to prove his doubters wrong by leading the Portland Timbers into 2024.

Still, for a while there, he must have been looking at what was going on in Miami with some degree of envy. Neville must have realized how close he was to hitting the jackpot.

Dismissed just weeks before Messi's arrival, Neville paid the price for the slow start that ultimately cost Miami a playoff spot. At the time, Miami were the worst team in MLS, and that descent happened under Neville's watch.

Still, one has to wonder what Neville could have done if it were he, not Tata Martino, in charge of a Messi-led Miami. Comparing the group he had to the side Martino inherited is really apples and oranges, simply because the former didn't have Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

It's safe to say Neville's time in Miami didn't go as planned, as, hampered by league punishments and roster restrictions, the Herons never really took off. Now, Neville will get a chance to prove himself in Portland, and it may just be his last chance at a high-profile job if things go south like they did on South Beach.

It ended prematurely, but you have to give FC Cincinnati credit for what that club has built.

From the Wooden Spoon to the Supporters' Shield, FC Cincinnati has legitimately gone from worst to first, all while turning their home stadium into a fantastic venue for soccer. That support was always there but, this year, those seated in the Bailey really had a team worth cheering, one that was as entertaining as any in the league.

Led by MVP winner Luciano Acosta and USMNT hopeful Brandon Vazquez, FC Cincinnati had one of the best attacks in the league, even after selling star striker Brenner for a hefty transfer fee. Defensively, MLS Defender of the Year Matt Miazga was fantastic, when he wasn't stirring up trouble in the postseason.

If the club can keep this group together, and that's a big if, Pat Noonan seems like he can build something great. There's a foundation there, one that won't let it sink back to the depths of yesteryear. Keeping Vazquez will be difficult, but Cincy is an ambitious club that can find a way to replace him.

Overall, it was a fantastic run, even if it ended painfully in a defeat to Crew. Cincy is on the right path, and the odds are that they'll be back competing next year.

When Wayne Rooney made his return to D.C. United, it felt like the club was ready to get back to its heyday. No, not the heyday of Rooney's time with the club as a player... the real heyday. For years, D.C. were a force and, with Rooney at the helm, it felt like all involved had the ambition to make that real once again.

Now, at the end of the season, we know that didn't happen. There was no return to glory, and now there's no Rooney. He's gone, leaving D.C. at yet another crossroads.

The team did get better this season, improving on a dismal 2022. Still, an incident of alleged racism involving their best player, Taxi Fountas, robbed Rooney of his biggest weapon, and it all went downhill from there.

Rooney's best effort wasn't enough to make the playoffs, and it wasn't enough to convince all involved to keep the partnership going. He jolted back to England to take charge of Birmingham City while D.C. prepares for the latest rebuild.

The best expansion team of all time. It was a hell of a season for St. Louis City SC, one that the club will hope lays something of a foundation.

Picked virtually unanimously to be near the bottom of the West, St. Louis instead finished top of the conference. They did so due to a perfectly constructed team, one that totally bought into being the lowly underdog with the opportunity to prove everyone wrong.

Now, they'll have the ability and freedom to build on that. Instead of needing to tear everything down like, say, Charlotte did after year one, St. Louis can add bits and pieces to take a really good team and move things to another level.

Credit goes to the front office, to head coach Bradley Carnell, and to the players for building something special. St. Louis is here to stay, having arrived in style in this debut season.

There was a little run at the end behind a ridiculous flurry of Billy Sharp goals. The season, though, really ended the moment Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez's ACL betrayed him.

The Mexican star's season-ending injury was the big moment in the Galaxy's season, one that ended with the club well out of playoff position. It proved to be Chicharito's last on-field moment in a Galaxy shirt, a sad end to a partnership that really did have so much progress.

So, where do the Galaxy go from here? They've seen their crosstown rivals, LAFC, become everything they used to be: a force to be reckoned with and a perpetual MLS Cup contender. Meanwhile, their glory days seem further away than ever.

Maybe this rebuild will be the one, as the club does enter the offseason with the flexibility to build around a legitimate superstar like Riqui Puig. Still, the Galaxy seem so, so far from what they once were as the rest of MLS continues to pass the league's most successful team by.

It seems fairly certain that we won't see Thiago Almada in MLS again. And, if that big move does happen, he'll have earned it, having become the league's latest success story.

One year ago, Almada was in Qatar, a member of Argentina's World Cup-winning team. He became MLS' first-ever active World Cup winner and, at just 21, it seemed the world was at his feet. Now 22, Almada has one more campaign of development under his belt, and it was during this season that he made the leap from young player to MLS superstar.

Much of the world will have been watching on as he starred at Atlanta United. Several teams in Europe will be eager to put pen to chequebook soon to secure his services. All the while, Almada looks like a player destined for more with Argentina's national team, having hung around the team in the year since that famous triumph in Qatar.

If this season was the last we've seen of Almada in American soccer, that'll be just fine. His presence helped elevate the league and the league helped elevate him. Another young star, another success story, one that MLS will no doubt use to show up-and-comers that they some day can be the next Almada, Miguel Almiron or Alphonso Davies on the way to European stardom.

It wasn't supposed to go like this, was it? Needing a jolt of star power, Toronto FC turned to Lorenzo Insigne, a hero back in Naples. His time with Napoli and the Italy national team showed that Insigne had plenty left and, alongside his compatriot Federico Bernardeschi, the Italians were going to ignite soccer in the six.

By the end of the season, though, the only igniting Insigne did was the tempers of the fans around him, as the winger's most memorable moment was a near-fight with a fan at the tail end of a last-place campaign.

Toronto were the league's worst team. Insigne was the league's biggest waste of money. Paid a record-setting amount of cash, Insigne provided just four goals and four assists in 20 matches while, at best, only looking moderately interested.

Reports emerged behind the scenes of drama involving Insigne, Bernardeschi and former head coach Bob Bradley. It was as rotten for TFC off the field as it was on it, it appears.

It's tough to see Insigne coming back from this as he'll be looked at as one of the biggest busts MLS has ever seen should he call time on his stint in Canada.

Many laughed at the decision. Ben Olsen? The former D.C. United coach? The innovator of the infamous 'Benny Ball'? That was who the Dynamo were hiring to get the club out of mediocrity? The rest of the league scoffed at what seemed like a hire designed to keep the Dynamo right where they were.

Olsen and co. got the last laugh, though. In year one of his tenure, he really did make magic in Houston.

The U.S. Open Cup, of course, was the big one, as the Dynamo took down a Messi-less Miami to lift a major trophy. That wasn't a fluke, though, as the Dynamo made a legitimate run through the playoffs before falling just short of the finale.

Under Olsen, the Dynamo, to put it simply, went from bad to good. Hector Herrera played like the superstar he can be, and the supporting cast all bought into what the club was doing. The result was a cohesive unit that will always have that Open Cup winners medal, and one that will be desperate to have another go next year.

Overall, the first year of this partnership between MLS and Apple couldn't have gone any better.

Almost all of that comes down to the fact that Messi is in the league, as every stakeholder in American soccer will benefit from the Argentine being here. A rising tide lifts all boats, and Messi's arrival is a tidal wave that is pushing American soccer further and further.

Interest in the league has never been higher, particularly overseas, but now is the time to capture that. So much will depend on how MLS capitalizes on Messi's arrival. Does the league take the training wheels off and finally try to push things a step further, or will owners be content to just benefit from this short-term boost?

As for Apple, they took a big swing on MLS as a guinea pig for a new type of sports agreement. In year one, that's gone well, once again due to Messi. We don't know how happy those at Apple will be with the return so far, but it's safe to say the content and excitement generated from that one diminutive Argentine is enough to make this deal worth it.

Once again, that brings us to the big question: now what? With Messi involved and backing from Apple, MLS is now in prime position to make a big move. How big will that move be? We'll find out soon enough.