Lionel Messi is coming to America. By this point, many of you will have heard. At the end of one of the most storied careers in soccer history, the legend and World Cup hero is coming to Miami to play in Major League Soccer. 

Here is where we in the press insert countless breathless and portentous stories about what this means for American soccer, for America’s top professional league, and for Mr. Messi’s career. 

At such a momentous moment, it is natural to ask momentous questions. When the world is gripped in the first giddy moments of excitement, we often either bathe in the rosy glow of optimism or assume the practiced role of the skeptic. Mr. Messi’s arrival will be a watershed moment for American soccer, or Mr. Messi is simply cashing in one last time before retirement. He shows that MLS has arrived, or that it is still just a rest home for stars past their prime. 

To this, I might say: Who cares? None of us really have any clue what effect Mr. Messi will have on American soccer. Yet what a joy it will be to watch him. Here is a man who has a rightful place in the conversation about the best players ever to kick a soccer ball. 

When Pelé came to the United States in 1975, he was 50 years too early. Soccer was still a punchline. Today, Mr. Messi can be enjoyed by a nation that now has some appropriate appreciation of his genius. What will he change? Even at this stage of his career, he can still change hearts, offering emphatic testimony that soccer is indeed the beautiful game.