Inter Miami are increasingly confident that Lionel Messi will join them when his Paris Saint-Germain contract expires in the summer of 2023.
That's according to the latest reports from The Athletic.
The David Beckham-owned club have been linked with Messi’s signature since their MLS debut in 2020 but talks have intensified between the Argentine’s camp and Beckham’s fellow Inter Miami owners Jorge and Jose Mas over the past few months.
Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG when he left Barcelona in 2021 with his future now up in the air before the Qatar World Cup kicks off next month.
The French champions would like Messi to extend his stay at Parc des Princes but the player’s entourage reportedly put any new talks on hold until after the tournament.
Former club Barcelona would also like Messi back and had been linked with a sensational January move for their ex-No.10 but it is Miami who are now seemingly in pole position to land the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner.
"I've always said I want the best players in our club and playing in our shirt because there's a certain expectation," said Beckham when asked about signing Messi back in February. "Unfortunately, sometimes it can be a bad thing. But most of the time it's a good thing.
"When I first started this project, people were saying, 'This guy is coming, that guy is coming, [Cristiano] Ronaldo is coming, Messi's coming'. At the end of the day, we need to win, whether it's with the young kids or stars."
The Herons finished in sixth place in MLS’s Eastern Conference this season, ending up in the MLS Cup playoffs, where they were defeated by New York City FC.
Not much had been expected from the Florida-based outfit at the start of the American season with a huge turnover in players and a lack of direction plaguing the Phil Neville-coached side.
A topsy-turvy campaign began with four defeats out of five and calls for Neville to be sacked with the early-season disappointment coming after a disastrous 2021 when they missed out on the playoffs altogether.
Miami were also reeling from the imposition of a $2m fine levied by MLS in the wake of the controversial Blaise Matuidi transfer which also brought with it salary restrictions for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
With Messi’s former Argentina team-mate Gonzalo Higuain retiring, however, it means Miami now have space for an extra designated player with Higuain’s basic $5.1m salary now also off the books.
Higuain’s spectacular form in the second half of the season pushed Miami towards the playoffs but his time in Florida until then had been unproductive.
Inter Miami are due to move into their new 25,000-seater Miami Freedom Park stadium by the start of the 2025 season with home games currently being played some 30 miles from downtown Miami in DRV PNK Park out in Fort Lauderdale.
Messi’s signature would no doubt be a massive boost for the young franchise, who are based in an area of the United States which has traditionally struggled to attract fans.
Miami Fusion went out of business in 2001 but Messi’s star power would no doubt bring supporters to the ground ahead of the 2026 North American World Cup. The city boasts strong links with Latin America, where Messi is a hero.
Messi is known to have invested in two properties in Sunny Isles Beach over the past few years. In 2019 he bought a condo at Porsche Designs Tower for a reported $5m and in 2021 his family completed the purchase of an entire floor of the Regalia condo tower for some $7.3m.
