Lionel Messi has no intention of renewing his contract with Inter Miami and will leave the club in 2025 to head back to Newell’s Old Boys, according to reports in Spain.
Messi has taken US soccer by storm since heading to Miami in the summer, scoring 11 goals in his first 12 games and helping Inter land its first ever trophy in the Leagues Cup.
It has been a whirlwind of a start for the 36-year-old, who has also resurrected the team’s hopes of snatching a place in this season’s MLS playoffs.
With Messi in their ranks from the start, Miami will expect to avoid the battle for playoffs and qualify more comfortably over the next two campaigns, before his contract expires in 2025.
Yet when that deal is up, Catalonian publication El Nacional claims he is not interested in putting pen to paper on an extension.
Lionel Messi will reportedly leave Inter Miami in 2025 and head back to his boyhood team
Messi (center, playing for the team as a youngster) has plans to retire with Newell’s Old Boys back in Rosario, Argentina – the first professional club he represented
Instead, Messi is reportedly set to leave Miami and seal an emotional return to boyhood club Newell’s, where he plans to bring the curtain down on his legendary career.
Newell’s were the first professional team Messi joined at the age of six, with the future seven-time Ballon d’Or winner spending five years with the Rosario team he supported before Barcelona came calling.
After waving goodbye to his first pro side, he went on to cement a legacy as one of the greatest players – if not the greatest – in soccer history.
It is believed Messi wants to bring his career full circle and retire from the game with Newell’s, coming as a blow to Miami in their likely hopes of tying him down to a new contract in the near future.
The Argentina captain enjoys a special bond with Newell’s and has regularly spoken of his desire to one day return to the club.
He said in 2017 amid concerns over safety in his home country: ‘I’ve said many times that my dream is to play at Newell’s but I don’t know what will happen, and a part of that doubt is due to the way the country is at the moment.
Messi, pictured wearing a Newell’s shirt to pay tribute to the late Diego Maradona in 2020, enjoys a special bond with his boyhood club
He returned as recently as June of this year for ex-teammate Maxi Rodriguez’s testimonial
‘I have a family and my 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren come first, and then me. I want them to grow up in a calm place, being able to enjoy life with security.’
Messi has briefly returned to Newell’s on several occasions over the years, including for ex-teammate Maxi Rodriguez’s testimonial in June of this year.
When he walked out onto the pitch at in Rosaria, the all-time soccer great sparked pandemonium in the stands as fans whipped up a sea of red flares and pyrotechnics.
