It took some time, but Benjamin Cremaschi is finally getting used to the idea that he shares a locker room and drinks yerba mate with his boyhood idol Lionel Messi.
The 19-year-old Key Biscayne native is a USA-Argentina dual citizen whose parents are from Argentina. He was three months old in June 2005, when Messi signed his first professional contract with FC Barcelona.
Every time Messi played on TV, the Cremaschi family gathered to watch and young “Benja” emulated Messi’s every move on the youth fields from Key Biscayne to Weston to Fort Lauderdale, where he began his Inter Miami journey at the club’s youth academy.
Cremaschi wears No. 30 as an homage to Messi, who wore that number early on with Barcelona and then with Paris Saint-Germain. He never imagined he would one day be Messi’s Inter Miami teammate, training side-by-side with a legend nearly twice his age, connecting passes in front of huge crowds.
But that’s what he has been doing, and the kid a rising talent in his own right. The club announced Monday that it rewarded him with a contract extension through the 2027 MLS season, with an option for 2028.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but he surely got a hefty raise from his 2024 base salary of $104,716, which was $33,300 above the MLS minimum wage. The average MLS salary is $594,390.
During the past two seasons Cremaschi (pronounced cre-mask-ee) has played in 45 league games, started 30, scored five goals and had seven assists. He was the youngest player on the Team USA roster at the Paris Olympics during the summer and was invited to a senior U.S. national team camp last year.
Cremaschi’s jersey is the 25th-hottest selling MLS shirt this season, just one spot behind his Miami teammate and former Barcelona legend Sergio Busquets. Last week, while doing a photo shoot for the team at a beach along Rickenbacker Causeway, he heard a passing motorist yell “That’s Benja Cremaschi!”
“Benja is a great homegrown success story for our development pathway, and we are thrilled to further our mutual commitment in the years to come,” said chief soccer officer Chris Henderson. “His future is extremely bright, and we’re looking forward to his continued contributions to Inter Miami CF.”
Cremaschi is the first Inter Miami academy product to sign a second contract.
“It’s an honor for me to be able to get a new contract, and hopefully, many more homegrown players can take the same path,” Cremaschi told the Herald. “Being able to stay here a little longer and represent Miami is the best thing for me.”
Cremaschi said other clubs had shown interest in him, but he did not want to leave just yet.
“It was super important for me to get to play close to home,” he said. “I don’t know for how long I’ll stay, but for now I want to keep growing as a player with this club.”
Cremaschi has sports in his veins. His father Pablo played for the Argentine national rugby team, and his mother Jimena was a top field hockey player. After moving to South Florida 21 years ago, they remained obsessed with Argentine sports and passed that passion on to their four children.
Benja and his two brothers grew up playing soccer and rugby, and their father started a youth rugby club in Key Biscayne. But he loved soccer a little more. He started at Key Biscayne Soccer Club and then played for Weston FC before joining the Inter Miami youth academy.
He still lives at home and drops his younger brother Santi off at MAST Academy on his way to Inter Miami practice in the mornings.
“I pay for my own things, but my parents make my meals, wash my clothes, and most importantly, they are always there to support me,” Cremaschi said. “I see some of the other young guys around my age are so far away from home and that’s hard, especially when things don’t go your way.”
Cremaschi said his childhood friends keep him grounded. Most of them are college students at FIU, Miami-Dade Honors, UM and other schools around the country. When they get together, they still hang out at the same restaurants, such as Chimba, a Latin American spot in Midtown that specializes in dishes from Argentina, Peru and Mexico.
But away from his friends, his life has changed dramatically.
“I’ve had to mature a little quicker compared to everyone else,” he said. “When I’m in a professional environment, I try to be professional and mature. When I’m with my friends, I’m just a teenager.”
Inter Miami, coming off a 3-1 home win against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, plays on the road Wednesday at Atlanta United. Miami already clinched a playoff spot and leads the Supporters Shield race with the league’s best record with six regular-season games to go. If Miami stays atop the standings, it will have home-field advantage throughout the MLS playoffs.
This story was originally published September 16, 2024, 9:00 AM.
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