So much for a Miami miracle.
When Inter Miami signed Lionel Messi, there were clear paths to earning at least one trophy. The Leagues Cup served as a worthy launchpad for a new era of American soccer, giving the game’s greatest ever player an instant opportunity to play high-stakes matches and, ultimately, win a trophy within a month of his debut. Miami nearly doubled their haul a month later, but a hamstring injury kept Messi from factoring in the U.S. Open final, which was ultimately dominated by a better-rounded Houston Dynamo.
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Beyond those two knockout competitions, there was one task left for Messi in 2023, albeit a near-impossible one: drag MLS’ worst team (at the time of his signing) into the MLS Cup playoffs.
With Miami now out of playoff contention, MLS has lost its best chance to sell neutral fans on a one-off game between the eighth and ninth teams in each conference, especially in a year when neither conference has a deep stable of worthy title contenders. That’s their problem to sort out over the next few weeks. Instead, Messi can bask in one of the great traditions of Major League Soccer: the league’s long offseason.
After the Leagues Cup, when Messi put together a player of the tournament performance while playing nearly every minute on offer, it seemed as though he’d never get a break in 2023. Now, fans of Miami and Argentina alike may be facing nerves of another kind. How will he keep fresh during the long and dormant winter?
Messi’s workload has had few breaks since July 2022, from preparing for the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season to a World Cup where he played all 690 of Argentina’s triumphant minutes to the conclusion of his final European campaign and the dawn of his North American sojourn.
At last, however, he’ll have time to rest. Perhaps entirely too much for Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni’s liking.
Although the league’s postseason doesn’t conclude until December 9, the season ends sooner for the 10 teams like Miami that miss the playoffs. Players and coaches can leave for their offseason holidays after concluding their exit interviews following Decision Day (October 21), the final day of the MLS regular season. There is no auxiliary competition for the non-qualifiers, no fledgling cup against another North American league to whet the appetite. After playing two more games (both against Charlotte FC, due to a quirk of rescheduling), the 2023 campaign is over for Inter Miami.
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Miami won’t know exactly when their next competitive fixture will take place. 2024 will open with Miami immediately competing on three fronts: the MLS regular season, the U.S. Open Cup, and the CONCACAF Champions Cup (previously known as the CONCACAF Champions League).
In recent years (that is, those that weren’t impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic), Major League Soccer has kicked off a new season in late February or early March. The league announced its full slate for the current season on December 20, 2022; in 2021, the following season’s home openers were announced on November 18, while the full schedule was unveiled on December 15.
This year, Inter Miami’s hopes of winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup were dashed in the final by a great all-around showing from the Houston Dynamo. The 2024 installment is technically already underway, as the first round of regional qualification took place on September 9. Even when the tournament proper opens next year, MLS teams won’t enter until after two or three rounds have taken place between lower-division sides. Historically, that isn’t until mid-April.
All that’s left is the CONCACAF Champions Cup. As of this writing, the confederation has not announced the timeline for its reformatted headline club competition. Past installments of the then-named CCL have opened in mid-February.
Assuming that timeline isn’t pushed into January (when many clubs in the United States and Canada would struggle to host games due to winter weather), Messi is unlikely to play a competitive club fixture for around four full months.
Don’t expect a BarcaLOANa
The long layoff has only fueled a seemingly impossible-to-extinguish flame in FC Barcelona fans hoping to see the club icon return. The wish is understandable. Few players, coaches, or executives are as singularly at the heart of the Catalan club, while Messi himself had hoped to stay past his contract’s expiry in the summer of 2021 and still held a candle for his former club as his time with Paris Saint-Germain came to a close.
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As legions of Netflix viewers are discovering (or remembering) as they watch the eponymous docuseries, Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham spent two MLS offseasons on loan with AC Milan when he was contracted to the LA Galaxy. That specific history could complicate the desire to let Messi head to Spain, as the Galaxy only turned its glitzy roster into an MLS Cup title in 2011 after Beckham finally spent a full offseason recovering and preparing instead of returning to Europe.
Take Beckham out of the equation and it’s still unlikely that Messi would return to La Liga. As reported by colleague Laia Cervelló Herrero, sources close to the player — speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships — told The Athletic he would not be going anywhere on loan and that his intention was to stay with the MLS club. Sources also cited his desire to establish a stable home in Florida with his family, not wanting to leave them for one to five months on a loan spell.
In addition, Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas said in no uncertain terms in July, “He’s not going to go on loan there. That’s not going to happen.”
Beyond that, the nature of his departure in the summer of 2021 fractured the Messi family’s relationship with Barcelona president Joan LaPorta. None of that considers the defending La Liga champions’ continued financial issues, which have left the fan base to obsess over “triggering levers” and learning the league’s new financial restrictions to a similar extent as many MLS fans.
Given a reported lack of interest from other European clubs this summer, one would think there may not be an alternative for him to make a temporary move.
Currently, all that leaves Messi to do from now until Valentine’s Day is finish out the MLS regular season and rest between World Cup qualification windows. Argentina was one of two teams to win both of their opening qualifiers (along with Brazil, as ever), notching a win against Ecuador before claiming victory away at Bolivia. Despite having not played since that Ecuador qualifier, Messi was selected by Scaloni for this month’s matches against Paraguay and Peru on October 12 and 17, respectively.
According to multiple reports, the time between the regular season finale and the November international window could allow Miami to do what the true “global brands” in the sport do: tour other parts of the world. As first reported by Gastón Edul of TyC Sports, Inter Miami could play friendlies in China and Japan next month.
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That trip would carry Messi over until the November international window, when Argentina hosts Uruguay on the 16th before a trip to Brazil on the 21st. Then, another extended layoff, as qualification goes on hold until after next summer’s Copa America before resuming in September 2024.
That leaves three months from the Brazil qualifier to the likely start of either the CONCACAF Champions Cup or the MLS regular season. It could give a rare chance for rust to collect on one of the sport’s most ageless icons. It could also be a blessing for Miami and its 36-year-old talisman. Given his recent issues with injury after such a grueling stretch, his employers are certainly banking on the latter scenario being the case. With World Cup qualification ongoing and a Copa América title defense on the horizon, the same can be said for Argentina.
Until then, Messi and his family should have ample time to travel the world in search of the best tomato covered pizza that money can buy.
(Photo: JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)