41 years old at the end of the contract
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Lionel Messi is continuing his chapter at Inter Miami in the long term. After his highest-scoring season at the MLS club, they announced on Thursday that the 38-year-old’s contract was extended until 2028. So far, Messi was only tied until the end of 2025. The team from Florida just finished the regular season in Major League Soccer as second in the Eastern Conference. They will face Nashville in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday.
The multiple world footballer Messi scored 29 goals and 16 assists in the current season. The Argentinian world champion recently had such a result in the FC Barcelona jersey, where he has legendary status thanks to 672 goals in 778 games. In Miami, 71 goals have been scored in 82 appearances so far. There is no noticeable drop in Messi’s performance – on the contrary; In the last three games alone he contributed five goals and five assists.
Messi again at the World Cup with Argentina?
In the recent past, speculation about an offer from Saudi Arabia had resurfaced around Messi. He had already turned down one two years ago out of consideration for his family when he left Paris Saint-Germain for the USA. Even if Messi has not yet made a clear statement about his sixth World Cup participation, it is hardly conceivable that he will apparently continue at Inter for another three years and no longer play for his Albiceleste at the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
He recently did not give a clear message to his fans in what was probably his last competitive international match on Argentine soil. “We’ll see,” he emphasized at the beginning of September: “If I feel good, I enjoy it. But if I don’t feel good, I honestly don’t enjoy it,” Messi explained: “I haven’t made a decision about the World Cup yet.”
In 2022 in Qatar, the exceptional footballer achieved the World Cup triumph he longed for in his fifth attempt. Before the tournament in Qatar towards the end of the year, Messi had repeatedly emphasized and insisted that this should be his last World Cup tournament. With a view to the final tournament next year, he later repeatedly emphasized that he didn’t want to commit and would just see how he felt.
A good six months after the World Cup triumph, Messi moved to Inter Miami in the Major League Soccer. He had previously played for Paris Saint-Germain for two years after having to leave his favorite club, FC Barcelona, after more than two decades. The heavily indebted club could no longer afford Messi. Messi has said several times, including when he said goodbye, that he wanted to return there at some point. It is questionable whether this will still happen.
For now he will continue playing in Miami. The club bosses definitely wanted to extend his contract. The managing owner, Jorge Mas, had already raved in November last year if Messi would wear the number 10 Inter jersey at the new stadium in the 2026 season opening.
Inter Miami has built and bought a team around the superstar that makes Messi feel comfortable. Luis Suárez from Uruguay, with whom Messi has a very good friendship, plays in the attack – they also spend holidays together with their families. In addition, Javier Mascherano, a former national team colleague of Messi, trains the Miami team. Most recently, Miami also signed Rodrigo de Paul from Argentina’s World Cup team.