Published for Inter Miami CF II fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ Inter Miami CF II Fans — Your Future Herons Are Rising!
Six academy kids signed first-team deals in one record-breaking season, a 10-goal breakout star emerged in the No. 47 shirt, and the youngest team in the league wore the famous pink with no fear. The results will come — the pathway is already delivering.
The Club
Inter Miami CF II is the reserve team of Inter Miami CF — the reigning MLS Cup champions — and the middle step of the club’s pathway: academy, then CF II, then the first team. Announced in October 2019, the side launched as Fort Lauderdale CF in USL League One in 2020, then took the Inter Miami CF II name in 2022 when it joined MLS NEXT Pro’s inaugural season. The 2026 campaign was the club’s seventh competitive season and its fifth in MLS NEXT Pro, playing in the Eastern Conference’s Southeast Division alongside Atlanta United 2, Carolina Core FC, Chattanooga FC, Crown Legacy FC, Huntsville City FC, Orlando City B and Toronto FC II.
Home is Fort Lauderdale, Florida — and since March 2026, the young Herons have had the Fort Lauderdale stadium all to themselves, after the senior side moved across to its new home at Nu Stadium. This is now purely a development ground: the place where Miami’s next generation learns its trade in front of the fans who follow the pathway closest.
The philosophy has a name — “Freedom to Dream” — and no team in America lives it more literally. In 2026, academy-developed players took 96% of this team’s minutes: 39 of the 43 players used were academy products. The head coach is Cristian Ledesma, appointed ahead of the 2025 season, following Federico Higuaín (2023 to January 2025) — and the staff even includes Gonzalo Higuaín as Player Development Coach, a World Cup finalist teaching teenagers how to finish.
There is no trophy in the cabinet yet — the club’s best season remains 2024, third in the East with 48 points and a first-ever playoff appearance — but the records tell the real story. Tyler Hall is the all-time appearance and minutes leader (71 and 5,975 entering 2026), Shanyder Borgelin the top scorer (14 goals), Edison Azcona the assists leader (9). And the graduates list is already elite: Noah Allen, Ian Fray, David Ruiz, Benjamin Cremaschi and Santiago Morales all passed through this dressing room on their way up.
And the shirt? Anyone searching for the Inter Miami II pink jersey in 2026 should know the twist: the II team wears its own shirt — a plain, solid light-pink adidas Tiro top with black shoulder stripes, the black roundel crest, the black Royal Caribbean crown-and-anchor mark on the chest and names and numbers in black. Not the first team’s striped shirt. The kids’ pink is its own look, and the fans who wear it are backing the future, not the fame.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#47 Zeltzer-Zubida — Inter Miami CF II Style Jersey
$59.99
The 10-goal breakout star in the young Herons’ own plain pink — black trim, the Royal Caribbean mark and 47 on the back. Fan-inspired apparel made for Miami II fans.
Last Season (2025): The Fall Before the Reset
The drop was steep. After the club-best 2024 — third in the East, 48 points, a first playoff trip — Inter Miami CF II slid to 14th in the Eastern Conference in 2025: six wins, six draws, 16 defeats, 40 goals scored and 72 conceded for 25 points, and no playoff place. Cristian Ledesma’s first season in charge was a watching brief over a team being deliberately torn down to its academy roots.
The one constant was Mateo Saja, the club’s top scorer with 11 goals — a young forward carrying an attack in transition. In hindsight, 2025 was year one of a two-year youth reset: the results bottomed out, but the club doubled down on teenagers, minutes and development. What that bet produced in 2026 is the strangest season in the club’s short history — last place, and a record harvest of first-team signings.
Best Players Right Now
Idoh Zeltzer-Zubida — #47, forward. The star of the season. The Israeli forward scored 10 goals with one assist, posted the team’s best FotMob rating (7.05), and became only the third player in club history to reach double figures in an MLS NEXT Pro season. His reward came in late September 2026: a short-term first-team contract and a place in the senior matchday squad for the Columbus Crew match. More on him below.
Mateo Saja — #80, forward. The repeat act. Top scorer in 2025 with 11 goals, Saja backed it up in 2026 with six goals and three assists — including Miami’s goal in the May 24 Florida Derby at Orlando. On a side where the attack rotated constantly, he was the finisher who kept showing up, two straight seasons as this team’s most reliable scorer.
Diego Rey — #52, forward. The third head of the attack: two goals and three assists in 2026, and one of the eight players called up to the first team during the season. His No. 52 is so established that the official adidas store’s personalization list offers “REY 52” — the kids’ names are already on the rack next to the superstars’.
Theo Vorenkamp — #72, defender. The creator from the back. The Spanish defender captained the side in the February 27 season opener and finished as the team’s assist leader with six — the chief chance-maker on a team whose forwards changed every week. When Miami II built anything dangerous, it usually started at his feet.
Matias Marin — #61, goalkeeper. The Argentine shot-stopper was the regular keeper and topped the club’s regular goalkeepers with a 1.62 goals-against average — a number that deserves respect given the league’s leakiest defence was standing in front of him. Busy, brave, and one of the season’s quiet successes.
Tyler Hall — #26, defender. The iron man. Hall entered 2026 as the club’s all-time leader in appearances (71) and minutes (5,975), and was one of two first-team-contracted players rostered with the II side for the season. A homegrown defender who has quite literally played more minutes in this shirt than anyone alive.
Star Spotlight
Ten goals, then the call-up. Zeltzer-Zubida’s rise is the pathway in one career. Developed in the academies of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Petah Tikva, he debuted for CF II in 2024 (18 appearances, three goals), grew through 2025 (25 appearances, four goals, seven assists), then exploded in 2026: 10 goals, the team’s top scorer, joining Shanyder Borgelin (14 in 2022) and Mateo Saja (2025) as only the third player in club history to hit double figures in an MLS NEXT Pro season. In late September the first team came calling with a short-term contract — the Fort Lauderdale system working exactly as designed.
Nineteen debuts, six signatures. The real headline of 2026 is a number no other club matched: six academy players signed first-team contracts in a single season — a club record. Daniel Pinter, Alexander Shaw, Cesar Abadia, Preston Plambeck, Daniel Sumalla and Lovend’s Delinois all put pen to paper, eight players in total earned first-team call-ups (Ian Urkidi, Diego Rey and Zeltzer-Zubida among them), and 19 academy players made their professional debuts. The table says this team finished last. The contracts say it had the most productive season in its history.
The night the kids reminded everyone. September 1, 2026: a 4–2 home win over New York City FC II — one of only three victories all season, and the clearest glimpse of what this project looks like when it clicks. Teenagers pressing, passing and finishing like a team years older. Results like that were rare in 2026, but they are the blueprint: the next New York City FC II that comes to Fort Lauderdale will face a side a year wiser.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More young Herons stars, same pink and black.
This Season (2026): Bottom of the Table, Top of the Pathway
Let us be honest first, because the fans who follow this team deserve honesty: Inter Miami CF II finished 16th — last — in the Eastern Conference in 2026. Three wins, five draws, 20 defeats; 30 goals scored, 74 conceded, 15 points. No playoffs, no silverware. By the standings alone, it was the hardest season in the club’s seven-year history.
But the standings were never the whole assignment. This was the most academy-extreme team in the league — 43 players used, 39 of them academy-developed, academy players taking 96% of all 27,699 minutes, and 19 professional debuts handed out across the season. The club even opened the entire league’s campaign, hosting Chicago Fire FC II on February 27 in a 1–1 draw (Saja scoring on 51 minutes; Chicago took the shootout). The closing stretch showed both faces of the project: a gritty 1–1 draw with playoff side Atlanta United 2, the 4–2 win over NYCFC II, heavy defeats to Orlando City B (1–4) and Huntsville City (1–4) in the home finale, and a 7–2 Decision Day loss at Connecticut United on September 20 that ended the year.
The verdict depends on what you think a reserve team is for. If it exists to win its league, 2026 failed. If it exists to produce first-team footballers, 2026 was a record year — six academy signings to the senior squad, the most in club history, headlined by Zeltzer-Zubida’s 10-goal breakout. The pink production line is running. The results are the price; the players are the product.
💗 Love the young Herons? Wear it. Shop Fan Sportswear at Toxlay Sports →
Mark Your Calendar
Inter Miami CF II’s 2026 season is over — the young Herons did not reach the playoffs. But the MLS NEXT Pro postseason is set, and it includes the side that ended Miami’s year. Here are the dates to watch:
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Conference Semifinals. Four matches: Chattanooga FC vs CT United FC at Finley Stadium (5:00 p.m. ET) — yes, the same Connecticut United who won 7–2 in Bridgeport on Decision Day, now chasing a final — Crown Legacy FC vs Columbus Crew 2 at the Sportsplex at Matthews (7:00 p.m. ET), Austin FC II vs LAFC 2 at Parmer Field (8:30 p.m. ET), and Portland Timbers2 vs Ventura County FC at Providence Park (10:00 p.m. ET).
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — Conference Finals. The four semifinal winners meet for a place in the Cup, with the Southeast’s own Crown Legacy FC or Columbus Crew 2 carrying the division’s flag in the East.
November 6–8, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Cup. The championship match, hosted by the finalist with the most regular-season points. Every playoff match streams live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com — the perfect scouting report on the teams Miami’s kids must catch in 2027.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Orlando City B — the Florida Derby. The MLS NEXT Pro edition of the Florida Derby, and the war this club measures itself by. The all-time series was dead level entering September 2026 — five wins each, four draws — but 2026 belonged to Orlando, unbeaten across three wild meetings: a 4–4 draw at Kissimmee on March 22 (Orlando took the shootout 4–2), a 4–1 win at Osceola County Stadium on May 24 with Saja scoring Miami’s goal, and a 4–1 win in Fort Lauderdale on September 4, when Nash Dearmin’s long-range strike briefly levelled it. Thirteen goals in three games — and a debt the kids owe them in 2027.
2. Huntsville City FC — the measuring stick. The September 13, 2026 home finale was the 12th all-time meeting between these clubs, and Miami entered it holding the historical edge — four wins, two draws, five losses — if not the form. Huntsville won it 1–4, weeks after a 0–2 win in Fort Lauderdale on August 16. No fixture shows the gap between the pathway’s promise and its present quite like this one.
3. Atlanta United 2 — the Southeast heavyweight. The division’s playoff side and the home of the league’s Golden Boot winner. Miami’s 1–1 draw with them in Fort Lauderdale on August 28 was one of the kids’ best results of the season — Atlanta needed the shootout (5–4) and a club-record eight key passes from Cameron Dunbar to escape. Back in April, Atlanta’s Arif Kovac had made his first professional start, and scored his first goal of the season, against this Miami side. The standard is set in Atlanta; the chase runs through Fort Lauderdale.
4. Connecticut United FC — the Decision Day wreckers. The East’s last playoff seed ended Miami’s season with the heaviest beating of the year: 7–2 in Bridgeport on September 20, 2026. The sides had already played a 3–2 earlier in the season, Alejandro Flores scoring for Miami. Connecticut then marched on into the semifinals at Chattanooga — the guests who ruined the finale and kept dancing. That one will not be forgotten in Fort Lauderdale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Inter Miami CF II play, and how do I watch?
Inter Miami CF II play in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the stadium the first team used before moving to Nu Stadium in March 2026 — the II side now has the Fort Lauderdale ground to itself. Tickets are sold through the club’s official site, and every MLS NEXT Pro match streams live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com.
Who is Inter Miami CF II’s best player?
Forward Idoh Zeltzer-Zubida (No. 47). He was the team’s top scorer in 2026 with 10 goals — only the third player in club history to reach double figures in an MLS NEXT Pro season — and earned a short-term first-team contract in September 2026. Behind him, Mateo Saja (No. 80) scored six goals after topping the charts in 2025, and Diego Rey (No. 52) earned a first-team call-up of his own.
Did Inter Miami CF II make the 2026 MLS NEXT Pro playoffs?
No. The young Herons finished 16th — last — in the Eastern Conference with 15 points (three wins, five draws, 20 defeats) and missed the playoffs. The season’s real success was the pathway: a club-record six academy players signed first-team contracts in 2026, and 19 academy players made their professional debuts. The MLS NEXT Pro playoffs run from October 25 to the Cup on November 6–8, 2026.
What is the difference between Inter Miami CF and Inter Miami CF II?
Inter Miami CF II is the club’s reserve and development team, playing in MLS NEXT Pro — the middle step between the academy and the MLS first team, whose graduates include Benjamin Cremaschi and Noah Allen. The II team even wears its own shirt: a plain light-pink adidas top with black trim and the Royal Caribbean mark, rather than the first team’s striped design.
⚽ Inter Miami CF II Fan Shop
The full young Herons trio — Zeltzer-Zubida, Saja and Rey in pink and black.
Sources & official links: Inter Miami CF official site · MLS NEXT Pro official site · Inter Miami CF II 2026 season in review
Pink shirts, young hearts, freedom to dream — the Herons’ future starts here.
