No comeback at Barça, no lucrative career end in the desert: World champion Lionel Messi is continuing his football career at Inter Miami in the USA – and with his move to the club of co-owner David Beckham, he is once again causing a spectacular turnaround in his vita .
“The decision has been made,” said the 35-year-old world champion on Wednesday evening in an interview with the Spanish sports daily newspapers El Mundo deportivo and Sports: “I’m not going back to Barcelona, I’m going to Miami.” Messi thus confirmed what the international media had reported unanimously in the hours before. “It’s not 100 percent settled yet, we still have a few things to sort out,” said Messi, “but we’ve chosen this path.”
Big money is probably tempting again, Messi is said to earn a total of 200 million euros in Florida: 50 million per year for four seasons, the newspaper reported Sports last. Since the departure of the exceptional player from Paris Saint-Germain, there has been extensive speculation about the future of the Argentine. After two bitter years in Paris, highly lucrative offers from Saudi Arabia came up and seemed quite realistic. Messi could have fought more duels there with his old archrival Cristiano Ronaldo – but would have disappeared into sporting insignificance.
A return to his old homeland was much more exciting, Messi had grown up at Barça, he had played for the Catalans for 21 years. And the hope for a return of the “prodigal son” fueled not least Messi’s father and adviser Jorge. He himself would “love it” if the Argentine world champions returned to the Catalans, said Jorge Messi.
And even the famous son found this option extremely attractive. “I really wanted that,” he said on Wednesday, “but after the experience and the farewell I had there, I didn’t want to be in the same situation again.” In the summer of 2021 he said goodbye to Barcelona in tears, there was no more money for the multiple world footballer – and this situation has hardly changed. The return to the adopted country of Spain was not possible, and it was not in Messi’s hands.
“I wanted to make my own decision and I was also looking for more peace,” he said. “If Barcelona don’t work, then I wanted to leave Europe, out of the limelight, to think more about my family.” The sporting challenge in Major League Soccer will be manageable for the world champion, and settling in should also be easy: Messi already owns a house in Miami.