“Dream” in the USA
This Braunschweiger is very close to a duel with Lionel Messi
02/18/2025 – 1:15 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Born in Braunschweig, Jannes Horn has been under contract with MLS-Club St. Louis City since last summer. However, there was no duel with superstar Lionel Messi.
Growing up in the western ring area in Braunschweig, Jannes Horn would certainly never have dared to take one day in a professional game against the best football player in the world. The 28-year-old has been very close to this dream since 2024. In August, the rental base defender hired in the MLS near St. Louis City.
Since then, Horn has been on the pitch in all his new employer’s league games. However, there was no duel with the most dazzling professional of the American elite class. But why?
After all, Lionel Messi, eight-time world soccer players and world champions, moved to Inter Miami in the summer of 2023 under great roar from the French top club Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami. There he plays in the same league as the native of Braunschweig Horn.
The “problem”: the MLS is divided into the Eastern and the Western Conference. While St. Louis is assigned to the West, Messi’s Miami plays in the east. Only in the playoffs subsequent to the league are a duel between horn and the Argentine superstar.
The fact that this is a great wish by Horn does not even try to hide. “That would be the dream,” he says in the Braunschweig “Football Spez Podcast”. “I was really looking forward to it. It would have been cool to play against Messi. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened so far.”
Therefore, you give everything to reach the playoffs at the end of the league and to make a clash with Miami possible. Outside of regular league operations, there is also the chance of a show of strength with Messi. “Sometimes there are out-of-conference games,” explains Horn. Shortly before his arrival in St. Louis, his club hit Miami.
And at least: Horn with St. Louis also meets well -known professionals in “his” Western Conference. Long-time BVB star Marco Reus, for example, puts together the shoes for La Galaxy. Striker Olivier Giroud, who played for FC Chelsea, FC Arsenal or AC Milan during his career, is on goals for Los Angeles FC. “Each team has three or four players who could easily play Bundesliga,” says Horn about quality in the USA.
Horn also met familiar faces with his team. In Roman Bürki, Benjamin Lundt, Timo Baumgartl, Jannes Horn, Michael Wentzel, Eduard Löwen, Marcel Hartel or Cedric Teuchert, there are several German -language players in the St. Louis squad. “It was definitely the right step. It is a lot of fun here,” says Horn, whose family also feels comfortable in the “football -loving” city.
And yet Horn also irritates the thought of returning to his homeland. The loan from St. Louis is still under contract with 1st FC Nürnberg. For Eintracht Braunschweig, the defensive man, who has 66 Bundesliga games in his vita and had stopped at 1. FC Köln and VfL Bochum, has not yet played.
In his view, it doesn’t always have to stay that way. He says about a possible commitment in Braunschweig in the podcast: “It is my dream and my wish. I hope it will work at some point, but you will see that.” Because in addition to his brother, who works at Eintracht as a physiotherapist, BTSV connects him a large piece of childhood.
“As a boy Braunschweig when you grow up in the city and are often dragged to the stadium by your dad, the club just grows to your heart,” explains Horn. “It has always been the case with me, that will never change. I am Braunschweig through and through and I am always happy when I’m back home.”
First of all, he still has big plans with St. Louis. The new season in the MLS begins against the Colorado Rapids (2.30 a.m.) on Sunday night. Then Horn wants to take another step on the way to the duel with Lionel Messi.