'Could change everything' - Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Inter Miami's search for sporting success

David Beckham could be forgiven for casting an envious glance downtown.

The Manchester United great was seeking sporting success with Inter Miami. Instead, it is the city's basketball and ice hockey teams making all the headlines.

The Heat are in the NBA finals and the Panthers are contesting the Stanley Cup finals. Inter Miami, meanwhile, have lost five straight MLS games, are bottom of the Eastern Conference and are without a manager having sacked Phil Neville last week.

Miami is abuzz with sporting chatter and the soccer team are on the periphery, enter Lionel Messi to shift the narrative. It's a city that possesses teams in the four major American sports, with baseball and NFL also represented. The Heat are kingpins while the Panthers' journey this season has propelled them into the limelight and allowed them to capitalise on attracting fans in a way the soccer team would love to.

ALSO READ: Messi's 'next club decided' amid Beckham's Inter Miami interest

"To have two teams from the same city go on deep runs in the playoffs, in two different sports, at the same time, is pretty unusual and so there really has been a buzz about the place," explains Simon Evans, a journalist for Reuters News Agency and based in Miami.

"A win for the Heat would simply solidify their status as the main team in Miami. But for the Panthers it would really establish them as a presence in the South Florida sporting landscape. I think they have won over a lot of people who never watched the NHL before and created a new fanbase.

"They have struggled for crowds at times, given ice hockey obviously isn't a traditional sport in Florida, but people have really got behind them and they have been packing out the arena and people who never