Three sports legends walk into a soccer game…

On Saturday, Aug. 24, David Beckham shared a photo on Instagram of himself, Leo Messi and Tom Brady posing together at the Inter Miami CF game against FC Cincinnati. 

“THE GREATEST 🐐 🐐 doesn’t get any better 🩷🩷,” Beckham, 49, wrote in the post’s caption. “@leomessi @tombrady to watch us go into the playoffs @intermiamicf 🇦🇷 & 🇺🇸 xx.”

In the photo, Beckham is wearing a navy blue suit with a matching tie and a light blue button-up shirt. Meanwhile, Messi, 37, and Brady, 47, opted for more casual looks, with the Argentine soccer player wearing black shorts, a white T-shirt and olive green shoes, and Brady sporting a green shirt and ripped jeans. 

The former quarterback shared the photo on his Instagram Stories the next day, writing, “I’m bringing @leomessi back to Birmingham with me.”

Beckham, who is co-owner of Inter Miami, welcomed Messi to the team last July. 

“Ten years ago, I started my journey to build a new MLS team,” Beckham said at an event at the time, per ESPN. “I said then, I dreamt of bringing the best players in the world to South Florida and to the great city of Miami. Players who shared our ambition to grow soccer in this country … We are so happy that you are all here to celebrate this incredible moment.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

He continued, “So please forgive me for feeling a little bit emotional tonight. It truly is a dream come true to welcome Lionel Messi to Inter Miami … Bienvenido a La Familia.”

Messi expressed his gratitude for being a part of the team at the time. “I am very happy to have chosen to come to this city with my family, to have chosen this project, and I have no doubt that we are going to enjoy it very much,” he said in a speech at the event, per ESPN.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

The soccer player has been benched since July 14, when he injured his ligament during the Copa América final, but it was recently reported by ESPN that he is expected to make his return to the field before playoffs begin in October.

Inter Miami head coach Gerardo Martino recently spoke about Messi’s healing process, saying in a recent press conference, per ESPN, “He is not training with the group. But yes, he is already out on the field and working with the physical trainers.”

Martino added, “He is developing well, it was foreseeable that he would not be with Argentina because he is not yet in a position to play, but we continue to see him develop. There is no estimate, because you are already starting to see how you feel as you add training on the field.”

The big Miami Dolphins personnel question of the summer has been answered: Skylar Thompson will be the backup quarterback.

The Dolphins have made that clear with the decision to release Mike White after he had served as the backup to Tua Tagovailoa in 2023. The news was confirmed by a league source Sunday morning.

The move was made despite the proposed rule change allowing practice squad quarterbacks to serve as the third emergency quarterback being rejected by the NFLPA, meaning the third emergency quarterback once again will have to be on the 53-man roster.

Releasing White will create $3.5 million of additional cap space for the Dolphins.

White now will be free to sign with any team, and the possibility certainly exists that the Dolphins could bring him back to the practice squad and maybe even to the 53-man roster at some point.

White had been listed as second team on the depth chart all summer, though it was Thompson who started at quarterback in the preseason opener against Atlanta and who came in first after Tagovailoa in the preseason game against Washington.

White got the start in the preseason finale against Tampa Bay but couldn’t lead the offense to any points, while Thompson shined after coming in late in the second quarter. He threw for two touchdowns and his passer rating was near 130 before he threw an interception on his final pass of the evening.

Thompson didn’t see any action in the 2023 regular season when Tagovailoa played every game for the first time in his NFL career and White himself got only mop-up duty.

In 2022, Thompson was the third quarterback behind Tua and Teddy Bridgewater and saw action in seven games with two starts — against the Minnesota Vikings in October and in the season finale against the New York Jets when the Dolphins won 11-6 to clinch a playoff spot. Thompson also started the playoff game at Buffalo that season and had an unsightly 44.7 passer rating that day, though he also wasn’t helped by dropped passes.

But Thompson was a rookie seventh-round pick back then and the Dolphins obviously feel confident he can handle the job as Tua’s main backup now.

“With Skylar, he got the opportunity to play early in his career and I thought, as a rookie, he demonstrated some aggressiveness and ability to make plays in this league,” McDaniel said after the preseason finale. “It’s been about, since then, training his craft and really owning the quarterback position within the offense and I thought this preseason, he’s exhibited growth and what that means. It means you are the leader of the unit, that you have to orchestrate play calls, decision making, all of those things, and I thought he took a good step forward tonight.”

Most impressively, the Herons have accomplished all this with Messi absent for nearly three months. Due to international duty and injury, the Argentine GOAT hasn’t played for his club since June 1, missing eight league matches – and Miami won seven of them, crafting a much sturdier collective and plumbing the squad’s lower reaches to gain key contributions from youngsters and role players.

As strong as Messi’s gravitational pull remains, both on and off the pitch, this team has learned how to win without their talisman. It’s a tribute to both Martino’s work and a far more balanced roster, overhauled on the fly by chief soccer officer and sporting director Chris Henderson.

All of this makes Messi’s impending return that much more exciting for IMCF and their supporters – and conversely, ominous for the rest of MLS.

“Leo, like I said the other day, I can’t tell you exactly what time, but he’s already on the field. He is working with his physical therapist, he’s out of the medical ward, he is training with a ball,” said Martino postgame.

“So he has to get back in shape or recover most of his fitness that any player loses when they are out for five or six weeks, and to feel confident that his injury is behind him. But it is something that I believe is not very far from happening.”