Higuain: MLS has me in love with football again

Published on: 20 October 2020

Inter Miami CF forward Gonzalo Higuain has said moving to the Major League Soccer side has helped him rediscover his love for the game.

The 32-year-old joined Inter Miami at the end of last season on a free transfer and has not had the best of starts to life in the U.S. as he missed a penalty on his debut in a 3-0 defeat against Philadelphia Union before clashing with his opponents. On Sunday, he was red carded after the final whistle in a 2-1 loss at Montreal Impact.

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Before moving to MLS, Higuain scored 121 goals in Spain for Real Madrid and later 157 in Italy for Napoli and Juventus. However, he said he feels people focused too much on the negatives, while ignoring the achievements from his career.

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"I've always been curious about this league [MLS], after watching it closely because of my brother and other big players," Higuain told CBS. "But I wanted to come here with the intention of being happy to play again and I think Inter Miami gave me everything I needed.

"Coming here to this league, gives me that feeling again, back when I was a kid enjoying playing, where in Europe I think that left me for many different reasons.

"I think from a media perspective, Europe was just too much. I had to basically prove to them every day, game by game, what I have done all my career, and patience was cutting short. So they don't give you time to truly enjoy playing."

Another reason Higuain is enjoying his time at Inter Miami is that he was recently joined by his old brother Federico, who signed from DC United.

"There are many things I have never known about him due to being so far away from each other," Higuain said. "So we basically lost 15 years together and now we're trying to get all that time back."

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Despite Higuain's incredible goal record at his previous clubs, he has often been criticised for a perceived failure to produce on the biggest stage.

He won three La Liga titles with Madrid as well as a Coppa Italia with Napoli and broke the Serie A goal scoring record of 36 in a single season -- a feat which Lazio's Ciro Immobile equalled last season.

In 2016, he became Juve's record signing helped them to three Serie A titles, while he also won the Europa League with Chelsea in 2019.

He was widely blamed for close-range misses in Argentina's two Copa America final defeats in 2015 and 2016 as well as in the World Cup final in 2014. At Juventus, he was singled out after the 2017 Champions League final loss, while at Napoli, he missed a late penalty on the final day of the season which saw them miss out on a place in the top four.

Source: espn.co.uk

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