Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami are reportedly in talks with Lionel Messi’s father and agent, Jorge Messi, and are confident of signing the mercurial Argentine to their club ahead of next season.
The MLS franchise owned by David Beckham has long expressed a desire to sign the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner. They were in the race in the summer of 2021 when it became increasingly clear that Messi’s time at Barcelona was up. Both parties continue to maintain cordial relations, especially Messi and club owner Beckham, and now, news has emerged that they are negotiating his move again.
Messi’s two-year contract at Paris Saint-Germain will be up at the end of the season and his future is the subject of intense media scrutiny, as always. The Argentina captain is focused on the World Cup, however, with this tournament being his last, but on the business front, his father and agent Jorge Messi has reportedly been contacted by the Parisians to negotiate an extension to his son’s contract.
Along with Inter Miami, PSG, will face the sentimental pull of Barcelona, who have reportedly also contacted Mr Messi. They will also face the equal financial might of Manchester City, who have harboured an ambition of signing the forward for as long as the MLS club has.
A return to Argentina to play for his childhood club Newell’s Old Boys is also on the card, as Messi has stated several times in the past that he would like to give them some years of his professional career for the role they played in his development. Messi’s future will become clearer after the World Cup, however.
His appearance in Qatar 2022 will make him, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos, who was included in Spain’s preliminary squad list for the tournament, as the only players who had played in the 2006 World Cup to play in the 2022 edition.
That is five World Cup editions in a row for the three of them, who will be joining an exclusive list of players to have featured in that many editions.
Speaking about Messi’s comments on Qatar 2022 being his last outing with Argentina, Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez said: “How will this be Messi’s last World Cup? No, no he’s crazy, we’re not going to let him leave … We’ll go to war for him.”
Argentina will face Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland in Group C of the World Cup in Qatar and will hope to better their 2014 outing where they made it all the way to the final and lost narrowly to Germany, via a goal scored by Mario Götze.
