The end was sudden and painful. Saturday night in South Florida, the locker room was sad. And amid the fog of the biggest upset in Major League Soccer history, a shocking reality emerged: Lionel Messi will enter the final guaranteed year of his MLS contract without a single playoff series win.
He had to change the league and Inter Miami. In some ways, he certainly has. But his body failed him in 2023. Atlanta United surprised him in 2024. He entered his second MLS offseason with more uncertainty than expected, and with a deeper question:
Where do Messi and Inter Miami go from here?
The answer, in a sense, didn’t change Saturday night. He will still be the face of the league in 2025. Thanks to FIFA, they will head to the Club World Cup, a stage on which their global ambitions can flourish.
But the rest of the answer depends on where MLS lets him go – and, ultimately, what Messi wants to do with the rest of his life.
Can Messi’s dream team get the boost it needs?
When Messi signed with Inter and MLS last June, he did so on a two-and-a-half-year contract, reportedly with the option to add a year and stay until 2026.
The league’s official “roster profile” Do not list that option year. But regardless, barring something completely unexpected, Messi will be back next season. Sergio Busquets will do the same. Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez are also likely to be in – Alba has a 2025 option in his contract, and Suarez revealed last month that he wants to extend it. The core of the superteam must remain intact.
Beyond the Fantastic Four, goalkeeper Drake Callender, defender Tomas Aviles, midfielder Federico Redondo, midfielder Julian Gressel, winger Facundo Farias (who missed the entire 2024 season after rupturing his ACL), striker Leonardo Campana, midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi and other youngsters. All are under contract until 2025.
The club could opt to bring back midfielder Matias Rojas, defender Marcelo Weygandt and midfielder Yannick Bright – all regulars – in 2024.
Apart from star midfielder Diego Gomez, who is a breakout star off to brighton In England, Miami can essentially run it back. And despite Saturday’s shocking defeat, it wouldn’t be an outlandish idea. The Herons were MLS’s class of 2024. They won more regular season points than any other team in league history. They fell apart this month less because they had fatal flaws but more because the football is weak.
Of course, he had flaws. Their midfield was weak in front of the ball. Their defense was weak. They will definitely be aiming for a solid center to partner Aviles in 2025. They can’t concede more than 1.5 expected goals (xG) per game, as they did last season, and hope to reach the MLS Cup.
But by rule, they also can’t add too many meaningful pieces under current MLS spending restrictions.
A lot of useful players would love to play with Messi. Most can’t do this, unless they take massive pay cuts, because mls roster rules One of the most taboo and mysterious in global football. For example, Neymar has often been linked with a move to Miami. But “today, it’s impossible,” Miami head coach Tata Martino said recently. Martino explained that the only way to enable this would be for the league to “make the salary issue more flexible”.
Technically, Miami may have a little more flexibility than Martino suggested. But the broader issue is that, with certain limits imposed on salaries and foreign players, it is very difficult Any The star-powered MLS club will also build a deep, well-rounded team.
There is hope – in Miami and elsewhere, though certainly not everywhere – that the rules may change. Messi’s arrival empowered Inter owner Jorge Mas and others leading the league Emphasis on relaxing restrictionsWhen asked last winter why the relaxations had not been made yet, MLS EVP of player strategy Todd Durbin said that league officials had left off incremental changes for 2024 because they “didn’t want to edge themselves, or did not want to pigeonhole themselves,” if they “wanted to make more sweeping changes, or to undertake a more significant overhaul of the system.”
Will that change finally come this offseason? The committee that takes decisions effectively, MLS Sports and Competition CommitteeScheduled to meet in Los Angeles on November 20. A person close to the decision-making process told Yahoo Sports that “salary cap and player investment models” are a big item on the committee’s agenda. Any proposed changes could be approved by the MLS Board of Governors (owners) at its final meeting of the year on December 12.
A true overhaul could significantly change the calculus of Messi’s final year in Miami. And it could allow them to become more competitive on MLS’s biggest stage to date.
The countdown has begun for Miami on the global stage of the Club World Cup
The first edition of the expanded Club World Cup is coming to the United States next summer – as long as FIFA can find a way to finance it. Part of the plan to attract broadcasters and sponsors, apparently, was to give Inter Miami a free tournament spot, even though the Herons did not qualify through any pre-determined criteria.
So, in June, for the first time, they will likely face a UEFA Champions League team in a competitive match.
They could meet Boca Juniors or River Plate; Or Palmeiras, Flamengo or Fluminense.
They will certainly be playing in front of a global television audience many times larger than they get for MLS games on Apple. He will have a chance to develop his international brand, and establish Miami as a destination for players and fans after Messi leaves.
This will be the climax of his 2025 campaign. Then they’ll be ready for another MLS grind, another League Cup and another playoff run.
Whether this will be Messi’s last match or not is yet to be decided. He has consistently said, as recently as last month, that he doesn’t know if he’ll still be playing pro football in 2026. “I hope that the beginning [2025] Had a very good preseason – which I didn’t have during all our travels last year – and from there, see how I perform,” Messi said. an interview On the eve of the playoffs.
For now, he’s living “day by day”, enjoying the moment. He continues to serve and star for the Argentina national team. They are on track to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
That historic tournament, which will be played across North America, could force Messi to extend his Inter Miami contract beyond 2025. If he doesn’t want to play another full MLS season, he may benefit from a controversial complaint: League officials and owners are Considering flipping their calendarsFrom 2026, the season will begin in August and conclude in the spring. If they make the change — a possibility but not yet likely — they would play a one-time, three-month-long competition in the spring of 2026 to bridge the gap, three people familiar with the discussions told Yahoo Sports. Messi could sign up for this as his Inter Miami swan song.
But still, his MLS window will remain half closed for now.
Suddenly, after Saturday, the clocks are ticking audibly in Miami – and at league headquarters.