The impact is global. The future of Lionel Messi will not be in Barcelona, despite the meeting between Jorge Messi and Joan Laporta last Monday that fueled for a few hours the hope of the Catalans. Nor will his new destination be the Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia despite the more than 400 million dollars per year that he put on the table to tempt him. The future of the 'Flea' is in a city that he always knew that at some point he was going to live and in a club in which for a few years he knew that at some point he was going to play: Inter Miami.
The mystery was revealed when the 35-year-old himself announced it in an interview granted jointly to the newspapers Mundo Deportivo and Sport, from Spain. "I made the decision that I'm going to go to Inter Miami. I still don't have it closed one hundred percent. I lack some things but we decided to continue the path, "confirmed the 10 of the National Team definitively closing the door to Barcelona. Jorge Messi will be traveling to the United States in the coming hours to conclude the agreement.
The official MLS website, with Lionel Messi lifting the World Cup
Major League Soccer (MLS) is already waiting for it. David Beckham, one of the shareholders of this practically new club, has ready a contract that in total has scope until the 2026 World Cup that will take place precisely on North American soil (USA, Canada and Mexico): at the end of each season Leo will have the option to decide whether to continue or not. There, too, next year, the America's Cup will be played.
The blow for Barca and their fans is strong because hope had been ignited weeks ago when informal contacts between the two sides began. However, from the club chaired by Joan Laporta could not give him absolute guarantees of being able to sign him, beyond having obtained in the last hours the endorsement of LaLiga to the financial plan presented to lower his wage bill.
As Clarín reported last weekend, the Rosario saw that the promise of news was stretching week after week and was not willing to go through the same frustration that happened when they told him that everything was going to be resolved and suddenly called his father to inform him that they could not renew the link and that he had to leave. The inconsolable crying at his farewell press conference was the clear sign of the sadness he felt in those days and did not want to experience again now.
"I was very excited to be able to return, but, on the other hand, after having lived what I lived and the exit I had, I did not want to be in the same situation again: wait to see what was going to happen and leave my future in someone else's hands, so to speak. I wanted to make my own decision, thinking of me, my family," explained the best on the planet from his home in Paris meters from the Eiffel Tower, a place he will soon be leaving to move to Miami.
And he deepened: "I heard that they had to sell players or lower salaries to players and the truth is that I did not want to go through that, or take charge of obtaining something that had to do with all that. I was already accused of many things that were not true in my career at Barcelona and I was already a bit tired, I didn't want to go through all that. And well, the time I had to leave LaLiga had also accepted to register me and in the end it could not be done. Well, I was afraid the same thing would happen again."
Laporta could not assure Jorge, his father, that he could sign him soon when they met face to face at the beginning of the week, so there was never a written and formal offer on the table. Barcelona needed more time. How much? No less than a month, maybe more. And the times of Leo and his family were not the same. Messi sought to cut for the healthy. And, without guarantees from the club to which he wants to return to close the circle of his career, he chose to hit a swing and accept the proposal of Inter Miami.
Why there? Here is the other leg of his strong decision. And it has to do with a change of life. After winning the World Cup in Qatar 2022 with the Argentine National Team last December, something made an internal click to the Flea. He wanted to return to Barcelona, his home, but if that could not be achieved he would seek to escape the exhausting pressure of the demands of European football. The first thing he did on the pitch of the Lusail Stadium once he achieved the greatest title of his life was to look at his wife Antonela and his sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro towards the box and say several times "that's it, that's it", making a gesture with his hands and still exhibiting a smile of absolute satisfaction. An omen of this present?
Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy - Clarín
That "that's it" now makes a lot of sense. And more after his reasoning about the choice not to continue in Europe: "I had offers from other European teams but I did not even evaluate them because my idea was to go to Barcelona and if it did not leave Barcelona, analyzing it, then leave European football and much more after having won the World Cup, which was what I needed to close my career on this side and live the United States League of Another way and enjoying much more of the day to day but with the same responsibility of wanting to win and to do things well always but with more tranquility".
He did not have a good time in his stay in French football, where he had to hear constant criticism and whistles from the hardest part of the fans. All that affected him a lot and at the same time he felt that he could not fully enjoy the upbringing of his children, who are growing and becoming very companions with their father. "I want to rediscover the enjoyment, with the enjoyment of my family, my children, the day to day," he said.
And Miami, a priori, is the gateway to that tranquility that Messi seeks. MLS is a less competitive but growing league, which promises to relaunch with its arrival. The Messis already went there on vacation all together. They have some real estate ventures in the city. And there is a large Latino and Argentine community. The change promises to be much more enjoyable than his arrival at Paris Saint-Germain.
While the original idea was to land in the United States later (2024), the impediment of returning to Catalonia accelerated everything. His determination was not merely economic, but the agreement is juicy, although it does not even reach the ankles of the Arab proposal.
In addition to paying his salary, Inter Miami has the financial backing of MLS – in reality, all the players in the league belong to the parent company in the United States – and Apple, which owns the television rights of the competition.
As detailed by the site The Athletic, Leo will receive royalties for the extra income that the MLS has for new subscribers who join the "football pack" of Apple + since the arrival of the Argentine. Apple, meanwhile, announced in the last hours that it will launch a documentary series about Messi and his participation in the World Cup...
Also adidas, Messi's sponsor and main sponsor of the MLS, will participate. The last leg of the offer includes the possibility of Lionel Andrés buying a franchise in the league or a percentage – it would be a minority – of Inter Miami itself.
For all this is that you will see the best footballer in the world play in the United States, away from Barcelona and with an eye always on the National Team with which next week he will be touring Asia.
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