Christopher Ross ’10, chief financial officer of Inter Miami CF, would like to disabuse you of the notion that he gets to hobnob with Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player to ever grace a soccer pitch. “I met Messi once, in 2023, after a celebratory dinner for winning the Leagues Cup,” says Ross. “It was very much in passing.”
Ross manages the financial reins for the current title holders of Major League Soccer, with a broad remit to work on contracts, financial planning, day-to-day operations, and, of late, a new stadium for the team that opened in April.
At Colgate, Ross played soccer as an attacking midfielder on a team that won two Patriot League titles (2007 and 2008), with the Raiders progressing to the NCAA national tournament both seasons. “Winning back-to-back, going to NCAA two years in a row, was the pinnacle of what we accomplished collectively as a team,” he says.
After graduation, Ross attended recruiting combines and was drafted by the Chivas USA franchise in the MLS SuperDraft in early 2010, but after five months with the squad, he was cut one day before the season started. “They handed me a trash bag, sent me to the locker room, and told me to collect my things,” Ross recalls. After a few other tryouts, Ross hung up his boots and moved on to the next phase of his life. “The sport wasn’t there for me anymore, and I quickly started a new professional endeavor.”
Ross earned an MBA at Texas Christian University, near his hometown of Hurst, Texas, and worked for 10 years in corporate finance. One day early in 2022, he received an unexpected LinkedIn message from the senior vice president of human resources at Inter Miami. The club, which was about to begin its third season, wanted Ross to be their new vice president of finance and accounting. It was a chance to combine the two big endeavors of his career. “I had some heartburn about it because most of my work had been around strategic finance, and I was looking at a position where I’d be continually responsible for the organization,” he says.
“It felt like a stretch, but I think they liked my background in the sport at a high level.”
Inter Miami was destined to be a marquee club. It is owned by brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, well-known Miami entrepreneurs, and David Beckham, the former English soccer star who played his final years in the MLS. Ross came on board as the club was courting Messi, who was ready for a change after an unsatisfying two-year stint at Paris Saint-Germain. “A number of stakeholders had to come to the table to facilitate the overall package for him,” Ross explains. “MLS, Apple, even Adidas got involved. Then within the club, we negotiated compensation and future shareholder structures. There was a lot of complexity to create a compelling package. Despite MLS budget rules, our ownership and leadership group found incredible ways to bring the world’s best player to Miami — a testament to their ambition.”
Ross, Xavier Asensi (Inter Miami’s president of business operations who worked with Messi at Barcelona), and the club were ultimately successful. They then added three stars from Messi’s FC Barcelona days: Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets. Inter Miami topped the table the following season, winning the Supporters’ Shield, awarded annually to the MLS team with the best regular-season record.
In addition, Messi’s presence has been boosting ticket sales at stadiums across the country. “We traveled away to play LAFC back in February. They play at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, which has about 22,000 seats,” Ross says. “But right next to it, there’s the Coliseum. They moved the match there and topped 75,000 in attendance.”
On April 4, Inter Miami played its first game in Nu Stadium, the team’s just-opened contemporary facility in the Miami Freedom Park District. The club put the pedal to the metal to complete construction in just 20 months. “It was a sprint,” says Ross.
If he and the team have their way, their next building projects may be expanding the trophy case. In March, Inter Miami unexpectedly crashed out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, losing to Nashville, but there’s still plenty of silverware to play for — “the Supporters’ Shield, League Cup, MLS Cup, and then the Campeones Cup in September,” he says. “We are a highly competitive team. Our goal is to win championships, and I have no doubt that we’re going to pick up more trophies in the back half of this year.”