Lionel Messi Confirms Move To MLS Side Inter Miami
Argentine football sensation Lionel Messi announced that he intends to join Major League Soccer (MLS) side Inter Miami as a free agent after parting ways with French champions Paris St Germain, while leaving a lucrative contract offer from Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who played his final game for PSG over the weekend, was also linked with a return to Barcelona but the Spanish club have had their hands tied due to LaLiga’s financial fair play rules.
“I made the decision that I’m going to go to Miami,” Messi said in an interview. “I still haven’t closed it 100%. I’m still missing a few things, but we decided to go ahead.”
“If Barcelona didn’t work out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight and think more about my family.”
Messi, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in December and has earned a record seven Ballon d’Or awards, won the Ligue 1 title in his two seasons with PSG as well as the French Super Cup in 2022.
“After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barca, it was time to go to the U.S. league to experience football in a different way and enjoy the day-to-day,” Messi said.
“Obviously with the same responsibility and desire to want to win and to always do things well. But with more peace of mind.”
The MLS said it was pleased that Messi intends to join Inter Miami this summer.
“Although work remains to finalise a formal agreement, we look forward to welcoming one of the greatest soccer players of all time to our League,” MLS said in a statement.
Messi had wanted to go to a club where he could eventually have an ownership stake, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said. He also wanted to maximise his existing deal with Adidas and MLS’s relationship with Apple.
MLS earns a flat fee of around $250 million per year from Apple until it reaches a certain threshold of subscriptions, after which point it will earn a share of the revenue from those subscriptions.
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