After 13 years, David Beckham's dream comes true. Inter Miami calls Miami home

MIAMI (AP) — Don Garber remembers the earliest days of David Beckham's plans to bring Major League Soccer to Miami, the quest that started more than a dozen years ago.

There were twists. There were turns. Eventually, there was Lionel Messi, too.

But there was never Miami — until now.

“We believed in Miami,” Beckham said. “And Miami believed in us.”

Inter Miami finally played a game in its namesake city on Saturday night, hosting Austin FC after more than six years of calling Fort Lauderdale its home. Garber — the MLS Commissioner — was there for the ribbon-cutting of Miami Freedom Park, a complex with construction still very much in progress and one that needed temporary approvals from civic officials just so Saturday's match could be held.

Beckham picked Miami as his spot in 2013, the league made it official in 2014 when he formally exercised his option for an expansion franchise, and now, there's a home.

“We made a commitment to him that he would have an option on the team, and he exercised that in Miami," Garber said. "And it was a journey. And that journey, in many ways, didn’t end when Leo Messi joined the club. The journey really came to its conclusion today with the opening of this building.”

The team says the stadium holds 26,700 seats. A public golf course near Miami International Airport was plowed under to make room for the stadium, and tons of construction equipment — from cranes to hard hats and everything in between — is still scattered all over the site. The lack of certain aesthetics didn't stop some fans from spending more than $1,000 on the resale markets for the best seats on Saturday, which was Inter Miami's first “home” match since winning last season's MLS Cup championship.

“It's a great day for the club,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano told Apple TV before the match. “It's our dream day."

By the time Messi came onto the field for warmups, most of the seats were filled. Beckham and the rest of Inter Miami's ownership group came out to applaud the fans moments earlier, even mingling with some in the most ardent supporters' section behind one of the goals. It was an event, with pink glow sticks being waved in the stands and music icon Marc Anthony performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Let the record show that Messi didn't score the first goal in the stadium; that distinction went to Austin defender Guilherme Biro. Messi got the first Inter Miami goal, a header four minutes after Biro's goal.

“There were times of trouble, you know, but David, he’s an optimist," Garber said. "I think he was an optimist as a player. Again, he’s got a lot of courage. You’ve seen that throughout his career. He has that same courage as a businessperson.”

Beckham is a global icon when it comes to soccer, entertainment and fashion — and in many ways, MLS changed forever when he came to the U.S. to play for the LA Galaxy. It was through that deal that he got the option for an expansion franchise, which ultimately meant Miami.

“When I came to America and the MLS 20 years ago, my dream was to win championships, help raise the game of soccer that I love so much and to build my own team,” Beckham said. “Thirteen years ago, I announced Miami was my choice. We had no name. We had no fans. We had no stadium. Today, I stand in our new home. We are champions of the MLS. We have the best player in the history of the game playing in Miami. Dreams really can come true.”

Beckham's celebrity level got things started. Messi put the team onto a global stage. And others now will try to replicate it — including Austin, which has actor and producer Matthew McConaughey as part of its ownership group.

McConaughey wrote an open letter of sorts to Beckham on Saturday.

"As Austin visits Miami today for a little shindig on your new pitch, I want to first shout out a sincere “thank you” — you didn’t create soccer over here in the US, but you damn sure supercharged it,” McConaughey wrote. “When you came to the Galaxy you gave MLS fresh legitimacy, you turned games into events, and essentially changed MLS from a proving ground to a premier destination. THANK YOU.”

Much work remains, both in terms of finishing the construction, all the surrounding areas — the team has promised parks, soccer fields, retail shops and more as part of the complex — and there's still final certifications to obtain from various governmental agencies. Garber said he isn't worried about any of that affecting Inter Miami's home schedule going forward.

MLS gave Inter Miami several road matches to start the season, buying the team time to get closer to finishing construction. And though outside was a traffic nightmare, things seemed to go off without a hitch inside the stadium.

Garber said his initial assessment Saturday was that the stadium was “breathtaking.”

“What’s happened in the last 30 days to where they are today is just remarkable," Garber said. “It’s way further along than I expected it to be. And I’ve learned a lesson that when people tell you things are going to get done, sometimes you've just got to trust them.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Fans wait in line to enter Nu Stadium, as signs of ongoing work are seen behind, ahead of the team's first MLS soccer match in their new stadium, against Austin FC, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Inter Miami fans wave a flag in Nu Stadium ahead of the team's first MLS soccer match in their new stadium, against Austin FC, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Fans wait in line to enter Nu Stadium, as signs of ongoing work are seen behind, ahead of the team's first MLS soccer match in their new stadium, against Austin FC, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Inter Miami fans dance and play music ahead of the team's first MLS soccer match in their new stadium, against Austin FC, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Inter Miami CF managing owner Jorge Mas, left, and co-owner David Beckham, right, stand together during a ribbon cutting ceremony before Inter Miami's first MLS soccer match in Nu Stadium against Austin FC , Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

JDEIDEH, Lebanon (AP) — It was not how the Rev. Maroun Ghafari had envisioned this Holy Week — for years, he had held Easter sermons in his predominantly Christian village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

This year, he is preaching from a Beirut suburb, beside a cardboard cutout depicting his church in Alma al-Shaab, now caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.

Since hostilities erupted last month between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group — in the shadow of the wider, U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — over 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, and more than 1 million have been forced to flee their homes.

Among those displaced from the war-torn south are thousands of Christians. They now find themselves far from their ancestral churches in Lebanon, where Christians have maintained a strong presence through centuries of Byzantine, Arab and Ottoman conquest and plenty of modern-day crises.

Christians are estimated to make up around a third of Lebanon's population of roughly 5.5 million people. With 12 Christian sects, the country is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any nation in the Arab world.

Despite being far from the strikes in and around their villages in southern Lebanon, they were reminded of the war by the deep rumbling of Israeli jets and the sounds of deadly airstrikes over Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Christian villagers who stayed behind in southern Lebanon, ignoring Israel’s blanket evacuation warnings for the area, have increasingly hardened into enclaves surrounded by fierce clashes.

And though villagers in Alma al-Shaab had been uprooted before, in the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, this time around, they were adamant they wouldn't leave, even as airstrikes came closer and closer.

The villagers huddled in their church for protection as Israeli warplanes pounded large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon while Israeli troops stepped up a ground invasion and Hezbollah kept firing rockets at Israel.

In his annual Easter homily, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai of Lebanon’s Maronite Church blamed both Hezbollah and Israel for the suffering wrought by the war.

“The country is going through a critical situation due to Iranian interference through Hezbollah and Israeli aggression,” he said. “Our hearts bleed for the victims of the conflict imposed on Lebanon.”

Ghafari’s brother, 70-year-old Sami Ghafari, was among the villagers who sought refuge at the church in Alma al-Shaab.

But he dashed out briefly on March 8 to tend to his garden, and was killed by an Israeli drone strike. His killing prompted the remaining villagers — including his brother — to pack up their belongings.

The U.N. peacekeepers in the area — a force known as UNIFIL that has monitored the region for nearly five decades — evacuated them to the northern suburbs of Beirut.

“We wanted to stay, but it was always possible that one of us could be targeted or killed at any moment,” the Rev. Maroun Ghafari told The Associated Press from St. Anthony Church in the northern Beirut suburb of Jdeideh, where the displaced from Alma al-Shaab came to worship on Saturday.

“Everyone is tired, and we see that war brings nothing but destruction, death and displacement.”

For many Lebanese Christians, it's a tradition on Holy Saturday — the day between Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection according to the Gospels — to visit the graves of their loved ones.

This year, displaced Christians could only reflect from afar.

Nabila Farah, dressed in black for the Saturday service at St. Anthony Church, was among the last to leave Alma al-Shaab. She still feels heartbroken, a month later.

“You miss the smell of home, the lovely traditions and customs, the sounds of the bells of three churches ringing,” she said, reminiscing about her village. “As much as we experience the Easter atmosphere here, it will never be as it is over there.”

Those who remain face other challenges.

Marius Khairallah, a priest in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where much of the Christian community has hunkered down, says that he and his congregants are staying put "not out of stubbornness, but out of a sense of mission, to remain alongside their fellow faithful, as witnesses.”

“A significant number of parishioners have been displaced or are absent,” he said. "Yet churches still open their doors. Prayers are still raised — even with fewer voices."

Worries are mounting among Christians in the area as the Lebanese army — which seeks to stay neutral in the Israel-Hezbollah war — pulls out from parts of southern Lebanon, leaving them exposed to Israeli forces pushing deeper into the territory.

St. Antony's main priest, the Rev. Dori Fayyad, used his Good Friday sermon to take solemn note of the war’s widening toll on the southern Lebanese Christians, as the faithful recited prayers in Arabic and Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus.

“Today, you understand what the cross means, not as an idea, not as a concept, but because you are going through it,” he told the fully packed pews, the crowd so thick that dozens had to stand or crouch on the back stairs.

Some wiped away tears as Fayyad named one by one the southern churches, illustrated in the cardboard cutouts next to the pulpit.

“These churches in these villages are not only places of worship,” he said. “They are silent witnesses to suffering and to faith.”

Associated Press video journalist Ali Sharafeddine in Jdeideh, Lebanon, contributed to this report.

A girl kisses a cross held by a priest during Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Parishioners walk in a procession after a Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Worshipers pray during Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Worshipers pray during Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Worshipers pray during Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)