Soccer world descends on Miami for business and pleasure during International Break

Most of the world has put a pause on club football until March 27 due to the International Break. That means you may be seeing more notable faces around town, as a high-profile friendly has drawn two World Cup sides to Miami-Dade, while other players come to soak up the sun.

Peru and Croatia

The highest-profile appearances belong to members of the Peru and Croatian national teams, as they are in town for a World Cup tune-up friendly at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday night.

El @HardRockStadium verá mañana el amistoso 🇵🇪-🇭🇷 @HNS_CFF pic.twitter.com/h8MrpPu5Be

— Selección Peruana (@SeleccionPeru) March 22, 2018

Before the game, members of the Croatian national team including Ivan Perisic, Ivan Rakitic, Mateo Kovacic and Luka Modric attended the Miami Heat’s game against the New York Knicks. All four received a customized Miami Heat jersey, which Modric shared on his Instagram account:

Miami vs NY… Thanks @nba for great hospitality! 🏀🔝

A post shared by Luka Modric (@lukamodric10) on Mar 21, 2018 at 6:15pm PDT

West Ham United train, soak up the sun

As we previously mentioned on our Twitter account, West Ham United came to Miami for five days to train and re-energize itself during a hard relegation battle. Manager David Moyes has an affinity for Florida and bought an apartment in Naples in 2008, planned the trip for weeks but didn’t anticipate the trouble the club would be in before the break.

Nonetheless, the Hammers came to Dade County for some hard work (training at Barry University) and some fun (team-building and sunbathing on Miami Beach):

West Ham has returned to England, defeating Dagenham & Redbridge in a friendly 3-1.

Loris Karius

Loris Karius, the German international and recent first-team regular for Liverpool, has made a habit of coming to the 305 during downtime. For the last two years, Karius has come to Miami Beach during the summer. During this International Break, he has returned to South Beach. On his Instagram account, he can be seen on a bicycle at 5th & Ocean:

📍305 #LK1

A post shared by LORIS KARIUS (@lorisk21) on Mar 22, 2018 at 10:53am PDT

For those looking for a bathing suit picture, you can find that on his Instagram too.

Have you seen another international players out and about in Miami? Have you seen something on social media we’ve missed! Let us know! Contact us on Twitter (@MagicCitySoccer) or Facebook (@MagicCitySoccer, too!).