Messi Postcard: Media crowds converge on him after games. Here’s how he handles it

Watching Argentine Inter Miami star Lionel Messi get through a crowd of defenders is impressive, to be sure. Equally remarkable is his ability to evade most interviews while making his way through hundreds of reporters who are carrying cameras, microphones and cell phones, calling out his name, and chasing him through narrow passageways in the bowels of a stadium.

Unlike U.S. pro sports, where stars such as LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes typically answer reporters’ questions in a press conference setting after big games, soccer players customarily walk through a “mixed zone” from the locker room to the bus and are not required to stop for media members who are jam-packed along a snaking corridor of barricades, leaning over and begging for the athletes to respond. Most athletes don’t stop.

The reporters are on deadline and under pressure to get quotes from the most relevant players. Nobody is more relevant than Messi and he rarely does interviews outside of international competitions (he has spoken to the Inter Miami media just once since joining the team last July), so imagine the mayhem when he emerged in the “mixed zone” at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta late Thursday night after Argentina’s 2-0 win against Canada.

“Leo! Leo! Leo! Leo! Leo!” the reporters yelled out, desperate to catch his attention, as he walked briskly past most of them. He made four or five brief stops, all in front of Argentine reporters he knows well. Each time he stopped, throngs of journalists rushed over to try to get into the scrum, even if it meant shoving those already there.

Messi smiled, and graciously answered three or four questions at each stop. Most reporters wound up with nothing. The lucky ones (this one included) got a few quotes.