Lionel Messi will turn down a lucrative contract in Saudi Arabia and join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent after parting ways with French champions Paris St Germain, the BBC reported.
Key points:
- Messi led Argentina to glory at the 2022 World Cup and won a record seven Ballons d’Or.
- He is linked with a move to Saudi club Al-Hilal.
- If he moves to Miami, it will be the first time the 35-year-old has played outside Europe since joining Barcelona at 13.
Messi, who played his final match for PSG this weekend, was also linked with a return to Barcelona, but the Spanish club have their hands tied due to La Liga’s Financial Fair Play rules.
If the deal with Miami goes through, the 35-year-old Argentine will play outside Europe for the first time since he joined Barca’s academy at the age of 13 and became the Spanish club’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals.
Messi had wanted to go to a club where he could potentially hold a stake, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters this week.
It also wanted to maximize its existing deal with Adidas and MLS’s relationship with Apple.
MLS collects a flat fee of about $200 million per year from Apple until it reaches a certain threshold of subscriptions, after which it will receive a share of the revenue from those subscriptions.
Messi’s move to MLS is expected to attract viewers to the Apple TV streaming platform, as the world’s most recognizable soccer player.
Messi, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in December and won a record seven Ballon d’Ors, won the Ligue 1 title in his two seasons with PSG as well as the French Super Cup in 2022.
The attacker was also linked with move to Saudi side Al-Hilal after receiving formal offer.
The Gulf country was looking to attract football’s biggest players to its league and managed to convince Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo to join Al Nassr shortly after the World Cup. French striker Karim Benzema joined Al Ittihad this week.
Inter Miami is co-owned by former England captain David Beckham, who was one of the first major European stars to move to the United States to play in MLS, winning the MLS Cup twice with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Reuters
