\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi renewed his contract with Inter Miami on Thursday and will remain with continue playing for the MLS team until December 2028. The decision comes ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and speculation surrounding Messi and when he might put an end to his career with the Argentine national team.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made via Inter Miami\u2019s social media with a video of Messi signing his contract at the under-construction Miami Freedom Park Stadium, which is set to open in 2026. Messi\u2019s contract was due to end in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality,\u201d Messi said in a statement. \u201cSince I arrived in Miami, I\u2019ve been very happy, so I\u2019m truly glad to keep going here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s renewal means that he intends to continue playing football at a professional level for three more years, although he has yet to confirm if he intends to continue playing with the Argentine national team. In case he decides to compete in next year\u2019s world cup, he would become the first player in history to have played at six of them (he\u2019s been present at the 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 tournaments).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s home,\u201d the club wrote in their post. The video ends with the phrase \u201cFreedom 10 dream,\u201d showcasing the importance of Messi for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n
In a statement announcing the deal, Inter Miami CF Managing Owner Jorge Mas said that Messi\u2019s decision \u201cis an ode\u201d to Miami. Co-Owner David Beckham added that their \u201cvision was to bring the best players to Inter Miami.\u201d He went on to say that Messi \u201cis still as committed as he\u2019s ever been and he still wants to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi played the bulk of his career (2004-2021) at Barcelona FC. He became one of the most important players in Barcelona history, turning into a major star and breaking several records. He was forced to leave in 2021 as the club could not find a financial path to retain his services. He moved to Paris Saint Germain and remained there until 2023, when he signed with Inter Miami in a surprising move.<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s arrival led to Inter Miami winning its first two trophies in 2023 and 2024 and helped initiate an era of successes for the club. Messi\u2019s fellow Argentine national team member and friend Rodrigo De Paul also joined the club in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi renewed his contract with Inter Miami on Thursday and will remain with continue playing for the MLS team until December 2028. The decision comes ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and speculation surrounding Messi and when he might put an end to his career with the Argentine national team. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,1372,1373,67],"tags":[1368,1370,1371,1369],"class_list":["post-2554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","category-inter-miami","category-lionel-messi","category-sports","tag-football","tag-inter-miami","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}