Messi joins Inter Miami

After 2 seasons at the French capital PSG, Leo Messi and the French club both with a mutual agreement decided to part ways. The club officially announced on June 4, that the match on that Saturday night will be the last one for the Argentine at Paris Saint Germain in their colors when the French giants faced off against Clermont’s foot in their last game of the season 2022-23. It wasn’t the last game at PSG for Messi only but another big name Sergio Ramos also played his last game at PSG on that night in the Parc de France.

On that night PSG were going to be crowned as the Champions of France for a record 11th time, extending their lead of titles over their rivals Olympic Marseille. That game summed up PSG’s whole season as they won the title on that night as it was already known earlier due to a difference of points and the huge goal difference between their direct rivals Lens in the second spot of the French league, but lost to Clermont foot by a scoreline of 2-3 against the favor of the Parisian side. But that couldn’t have any impact on the title race as PSG were already declared Champions.

So on that night, after securing the Ligue 1 title for the French side, the 7-time Ballon d’Or winner left the French capital looking forward to his future ahead in the upcoming days.

What did Messi achieve with PSG?

The 4 times Champions League winner Messi joined Paris Saint Germain as a free agent back in the 2021 season. Regardless of his not achieving the biggest collective prize of European football with the French side, the Champions League, which he was expected to bring to the French capital along with a star-studded team, he still has achieved much more after moving to Paris.

Lionel Messi played a total of 75 matches during his 2 seasons at PSG in different competitions including the French League, Champions League, Trophess de Champions, and Coup de France. He has been many times involved directly and indirectly in the attacking phase for PSG providing a decent number of goals as well as assists. Despite winning the Ballon d’Or in 2021, Messi’s first season with PSG wasn’t good at all. He just managed to score 6 league goals. But the 2022-23 season, in which Messi became World Champion with Argentina was quite well at PSG also. Messi’s number of goals and assists with PSG are:

 All Competitions:

75 appearances, 32 Goals, 34 Assists

 

Ligue 1:

58 appearances, 22 Goals, 30 Assists

 

Champions League:

14 appearances, 9 Goals, 4 assists

 

Coupe De France:

2 appearances, 0 Goals, 0 Assists

 

Trophee Des Champions:

1 appearance, 1 Goal, 0 assists

 

Honours with PSG

Ligue 1 2021-22 Winner

Ligue 1 2022-23 Winner

Trophee Des Champions 2022 Winner

 

Apart from these stats and collective honors, Messi was the top assist provider of Ligue 1 in the 2022-23 season and is also been chosen as the Best Foreign Player of Ligue 1 in the 2022-23 season.

 

Apart from these stats and collective honors, Messi was the top assist provider of Ligue 1 in the 2022-23 season and is also been chosen as the Best foreign player of Ligue 1 in the 2022-23 season.

The 2023 Messi Transfer Saga

As it was already started to look that Lionel Messi will not renew his contract with PSG following the summer of 2023, the club officially announced on the 4th of June that the Argentine and the French club are parting ways at the end of the season and the season was ending for PSG on that same day when they played their last game of the season against Clermont Foot. And now the intense Messi transfer saga began which lasted nearly 4 days and the Argentine was quick to decide his future.

We all know that the 36 years old Argentine was heavily linked with returning to his childhood club ever since his departure from PSG looked certain. So fans had quite a hope of seeing him at FC Barcelona once again with a dream return. And as discussed in the previous Leo Messi transfer-related blog, there were 3 most prominent options on the table for Messi but these weren’t the only options as Messi despite being a 36-year-old still had great value in the transfer market and in fact, that was exactly the case as there were also 2 more offers from top European clubs and Messi had to decide where he would like to go.

The three most prominent options were FC Barcelona, Al Hilal, and Inter Miami. But Barcelona never made an official bid for Messi despite La Liga giving the green light in terms of financial fair play. There was a meeting between Barca’s president Joan Laporta and Messi’s father Jorge Messi and Messi’s return to Barca was one of the potential options and returning to Barcelona was also the priority of Leo Messi. But unfortunately, Barca was unable to find a way to make an official offer for Messi. The remaining 2 most prominent options with official offers were on the table and these were huge offers in terms of value and money.

 Saudi club Al Hilal’s offer

• 400 million€ per year
• A total net salary of more than 1.2 Billion € for two seasons

 

American Club Inter Miami’s offer

• 100 million€ per year
• A percentage of profit share from Adidas
• A percentage of profit share from Apple

 

The other two offers from the top European clubs were from the English club Newcastle United and the Italian club Inter Milan. But Messi never considered joining these two as his only desire in Europe was to join FC Barcelona as he told in an interview.

Leo signs with Inter Miami

After an intense transfer saga, Lionel Messi finally made his decision and officially announced on June 8 that he is joining David Beckham’s Inter Miami. The whole football world was left in shock after this decision as he was expected to continue in the European top leagues or instead join his career-long rival Cristiano Ronaldo in the Saudi Pro League as he had a monstrous offer on the table from Al Hilal. Most football fans wanted to see the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry once again as Cristiano’s Al Nassr were bitter rivals of Al Hilal, but Lionel Messi had other plans.

Almost 30 minutes after the announcement, Messi’s interview was published on social media where he clarified everything.

Messi in that interview told that ‘he wanted to return to Barcelona’.

The Argentinian said:

“I wanted to return to Barcelona. I had that dream. However, considering what occurred a couple of years ago, I didn’t want to find myself in a similar predicament once more and put my destiny in somebody else’s hands. I wanted to make my decision, thinking of me and my family. Money was never been an issue. We never discussed my pay, and the management never submitted a formal proposal. I didn’t wish to be in charge of Barcelona selling players or lowering wages. I was done with it.”

The world champion told that he was contacted by other clubs from Europe as well but he never wanted to go to any other European team except FC Barcelona.

Understandably, Messi decided to join Inter Miami as in the past, he has told many times that he dreams of playing in the US(America). And at this stage of his career when he has won and everything, It’s time that he enjoys his life, and football isn’t bad either in the US it is just called Soccer there. After Lionel Messi’s announcement of joining Inter Miami, another former team-mate of Messi and FC Barcelona legend Sergio Busquets has now also agreed to join Inter Miami officially.

Reports coming that Messi will be officially presented as an Inter Miami player on 21 July when the David Beckham side plays in the League Cup match and it’s possible that Sergio Busquets would be presented on the same date as Messi alongside him. With Messi joining Inter Miami, many new and top signings are made by Miami as well as more are expected. Former Barca coach, who is also an Argentinian and has already coached Messi in his Barcelona days ‘Tata Martino’ has now officially signed as the new head coach of Inter Miami. And multiple reports are also on the line as Jordi Alba and Sergio Ramos are also expected to join Inter Miami as Inter Miami’s president told that they would bring more big names and Jordi Alba, Sergio Ramos, and Andres Iniesta are some of those considered as all 3 of these players are available on the transfer market as free agents.

So a very exciting future and new challenges coming ahead for Lionel Messi as the 2024 Copa America and the new format 32 teamed Fifa Club World Cup will be played in the US. And Messi can very well prepare for it. Also, the Fifa World Cup 2026 will be co-hosted by the USA even though Messi has signaled many times that he would not be playing in the 2026 World Cup. And Copa America seems to be his last international tournament as more obvious for now. But let’s see what’s ahead in the future.