The ending was abrupt and painful. On Saturday night, the locker room in South Florida was somber. And somewhere amid the haze of the greatest turmoil in Major League Soccer history, a startling reality emerged: Lionel Messi will enter the final guaranteed year of his MLS contract without a single playoff win.
He had to transform the league and Inter Miami. In some ways he certainly did. But his body failed him in 2023. Atlanta United stunned him in 2024. He drifted into his second MLS offseason with more uncertainty than hope, and a pressing question looming:
Where do Messi and Inter Miami go from here?
In a sense, the answer didn’t change Saturday night. They will still be the face of the competition in 2025. Thanks to FIFA, they will headline the Club World Cup, a platform on which their global ambitions can flourish.
But the rest of the answer depends on where MLS lets them 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 an option to add a year and stay until 2026.
The league’s official “roster profiles” do not mention that option year. But either way, barring something completely unforeseen, Messi will be back next season. This also applies to Sergio Busquets. Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez will probably be too. Alba has an option for 2025 in his contract, and Suarez announced last month that he wants to extend his. The core of the super team must remain intact.
Beyond the Fantastic Four are goalkeeper Drake Callender, defender Tomás Avilés, midfielder Federico Redondo, midfielder Julian Gressel, winger Facundo Farías (who missed the entire 2024 season after tearing his ACL), striker Leonardo Campana, midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi and others young people all under contract until 2025.
The club could also opt to bring back midfielder Matías Rojas, defender Marcelo Weigandt and midfielder Yannick Bright, all regular players, in 2024.
Barring star midfielder Diego Gomez, a breakout star heading to Brighton, England, Miami could essentially run it back. And despite Saturday’s shocking loss, that wouldn’t be an outlandish idea. The Herons were the class of MLS in 2024. They won more points in the regular season than any other team in the league’s history. They are less fragmented this month because they have had fatal flaws, and especially because football is fluctuating.
Of course they also had flaws. Their midfield was porous against the ball. Their defense was shaky. They will certainly focus on a solid central defender with partner Avilés in 2025. They can’t continue to concede more than 1.5 expected goals (xG) per game, as they did this past season, and expect to advance to the MLS Cup.
But they also generally can’t add too many meaningful pieces under current MLS spending restrictions.
A lot of useful players would like to join Messi. Most can’t do that unless they take significant pay cuts, because MLS roster rules are among the most prohibitively expensive and secretive in global soccer. Neymar, for example, is often linked with a move to Miami. But “today this is impossible,” Miami head coach Tata Martino said recently. The only way to make this happen, Martino explained, 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 point is that, with salaries and foreign players subject to certain ceilings, it is very difficult each star-powered MLS club to build a deep, well-rounded team as well.
The hope – in Miami and elsewhere, but certainly not everywhere – is that the rules can change. Messi’s arrival gave Inter owner Jorge Mas and others at the helm of the league the strength to push for an easing of restrictions. When asked last winter why the relaxation hadn’t happened yet, MLS EVP of player strategy Todd Durbin said league executives had eschewed incremental adjustments for 2024 because they didn’t want to corner or pigeonhole ourselves in case they wanted that. to make more significant changes, or undertake a more significant overhaul of the system.”
Will that overhaul finally come this offseason? The committee that actually makes the decision, the MLS Sports and Competition Committee, will meet on November 20 in Los Angeles. One person close to the decision-making process told Yahoo Sports that the “salary cap and player investment model” is a key topic on the committee’s agenda. Any proposed changes can then be approved by the MLS Board of Directors (the Owners) at their final meeting of the year on December 12th.
A real overhaul could significantly change the calculus for Messi’s final years in Miami. And it could allow them to be more competitive on the biggest stage the MLS has ever had.
The countdown begins for Miami on the world 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 was apparently to give Inter Miami the only open spot for the tournament, even though the Herons did not qualify based on pre-established criteria.
So in June they will likely face a UEFA Champions League team in a competitive match for the first time.
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 what they get for MLS games on Apple. They have the opportunity to grow their international brand and establish Miami as a destination for players and fans long after Messi has left.
That will be the highlight of their 2025 campaign. After that, they’ll settle for another MLS grind, another Leagues Cup and another playoff run.
Whether it will be Messi’s last remains to be seen. Last month he has consistently said that he does not know whether he will still be playing professional football in 2026. [2025] I have a very good preseason – which I didn’t have last year with all the trips we had – and see how I go from there,” Messi said in an interview on the eve of the play-offs.
For now he lives ‘day by day’, in the moment, and enjoys himself. He continues to serve and shine for the Argentina national team. They are well on their way to qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
That groundbreaking tournament, which will be played across North America, could force Messi to extend his contract with Inter Miami beyond 2025. If he doesn’t want to play another full MLS season, he could benefit from a much-discussed wrinkle: League executives and owners are considering flipping their calendar, with seasons starting in August and ending in the spring, starting in 2026 If they make the change — a possibility but not yet a likelihood — they would play a unique, one-off match in the spring of 2026 to bridge the gap, three people familiar with the discussions told Yahoo Sports. Messi could sign up for that as his Inter Miami swan song.
But even then, his MLS window would be half-closed.
Suddenly, after Saturday, the clocks in Miami — and at the league’s headquarters — were ticking audibly.
