Lionel Messi and Inter Miami complete new contract. He'll remain with the club at least into 2026

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi has finally agreed to a new contract with Inter Miami, a deal that required several months to complete and ensures that the sport’s biggest icon will be with the Major League Soccer club for its planned move into a new stadium next year.

The deal was announced Thursday, one day before Inter Miami’s playoff opener against Nashville. Messi’s team — the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference — will play host to Game 1 of that best-of-three series on Friday night.

The team announced the move in a social media post, one showing Messi signing the contract inside the new stadium that remains under construction. “HE'S HOME,” the team said in the post.

“It makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality — playing in this stadium, at Miami Freedom Park," Messi said in remarks distributed by the club. “Since I arrived in Miami, I’ve been very happy, so I’m truly glad to keep going here.”

Inter Miami said it was a three-year deal through 2028. The notion of Messi playing two or three more seasons certainly would serve as a boost to ticket sales at the stadium the team has been building near Miami International Airport. The team has been selling ticket packages and taking deposits on seats in the new park for more than a year, all with the assumption that Messi would remain part of the franchise.

His decision to stay in Miami is big for both the club and for MLS. Messi's was the league’s MVP last season and is the overwhelming choice to win the award again this year, which would make him only the second two-time winner in league history and the first to win it in back-to-back years. Preki won the MVP award in 1997 and 2003.

“To enjoy him, watching him enjoy doing the things he is doing, he’s very, very competitive and he tries to translate that to the team,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said Thursday. “The best way to help him is trying to do the right things ... he has to be comfortable on the pitch. He’s comfortable when things are working in the right way.

“With him, when we do things the right way, we’ll have many chances to have success.”

Messi won MLS’ Golden Boot this season after scoring 29 goals, five more than LAFC’s Denis Bouanga and Nashville’s Sam Surridge. He also had 19 assists, and his 48 total goal contributions was one shy of matching the MLS record of 49 set by Carlos Vela in 2019.

This season, Messi had multiple goals in five consecutive games — making him the first MLS player to achieve such a feat — and had 10 multigoal games, another league record. The previous mark was eight such games.

“We promised our fans that we would dream big to build an iconic club. A club that represents the passion, hard work and dedication of all those that came before us to create a Miami built on dreams," Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas said. “Leo signing through 2028 is an ode to our amazing city."

Messi is 38, which makes this contract likely his last as a professional player. He has spent well over half his life playing at the pro level, making his debut with Barcelona as a 17-year-old in 2004.

It is not clear how long Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and generally considered the sport’s biggest star, plans to keep playing. He led Argentina to the World Cup title in 2022; his country will aim to defend that trophy when the tournament is played next June and July in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

His Inter Miami team will look different in 2026, for certain. Messi agreed to join the club in July 2023 on what was a 2 1/2-year contract, and it wound up becoming a reunion of longtime Barcelona teammates when he was eventually joined by Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez.

Busquets and Alba are both retiring after this season; Alba made the decision to step away just months after agreeing to a three-year contract. Suarez’s future is unclear, and it’s believed retirement could be an option for him as well.

But Messi will play on, into 2026 anyway. He and the team were closing in toward the finish line of this drawn-out contract negotiation last month, and it wasn’t clear why it took several more weeks to get Messi to finally sign the deal.

His first contract with Inter Miami was worth an estimated $150 million at the time. It immediately began paying off, with Inter Miami winning its first trophy — the 2023 Leagues Cup — shortly after he arrived.

Last season, when he won the MLS MVP award for the first time, he did so while missing 15 of Inter Miami’s 34 regular-season matches because of injuries or commitments to Argentina’s national team. Even with those absences, Inter Miami won its first Supporters’ Shield by having MLS’ best regular-season record — then got upset in the first round of the playoffs.

The club has seen a massive rise in global popularity with Messi on the roster. His pink No. 10 jersey has been MLS’ highest seller since he joined the league, and he has added to his massive off-field business empire since coming to the U.S. — even starring in a Super Bowl ad last year.

“Our vision was to bring the best players to Inter Miami and to this city, and that’s exactly what we have done,” Inter Miami co-owner and soccer icon David Beckham said. “We brought the best player to have ever played the game to our city. That shows our commitment to Miami, but it also shows Leo’s commitment to the city, to the club, and to the game. He’s still as committed as he’s ever been and he still wants to win."

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