- Messi has taken American football by storm since heading to Miami this summer
- But reports suggest he will not stay beyond his contract, which expires in 2025
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Lionel Messi has no plans to renew his contract with Inter Miami and will leave the club in 2025 to return to Newell’s Old Boys, according to reports in Spain.
Messi has taken American football by storm since heading to Miami this summer. He scored eleven goals in his first twelve games and helped Inter win their first ever Leagues Cup trophy.
It’s been a whirlwind start for the 36-year-old, who has also revived the team’s hopes of a place in this season’s MLS play-offs.
With Messi in their ranks from the start, Miami expects to avoid playoff contention and qualify more comfortably over the next two seasons before his contract expires in 2025.
But if that deal is done, Catalan publication El National claims he is not interested in putting pen to paper on an extension.
Lionel Messi will reportedly leave Inter Miami in 2025 and return to his boyhood team
Messi (center, playing for the team as a youngster) plans to retire from Newell’s Old Boys in Rosario, Argentina – the first professional club he represented
Instead, Messi is reportedly leaving Miami, sealing an emotional return to boyhood club Newell’s, where he plans to bring the curtain down on his legendary career.
Newell was 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 parting ways with his first professional team, he built a legacy as one of the greatest players – if not the greatest – in football history.
It is believed that Messi wants to wrap up his career and withdraw from the match with Newell’s, which will be a blow to Miami in their likely hope of tying him down to a new contract in the near future.
The Argentina captain has 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 security concerns in his home country: “I have often said that my dream is to play at Newell’s, but I don’t know what will happen, and part of that doubt is due to the way the country is right now.
Messi, pictured wearing a Newell’s shirt in tribute to the late Diego Maradona in 2020, enjoys a special bond with his boyhood club
He only returned in June this year for ex-teammate Maxi Rodriguez’s testimony
‘I have a family and my children come first, and then me. I want them to grow up in a quiet place, where they can enjoy life safely.’
Messi has returned briefly to Newell’s several times over the years, including for ex-teammate Maxi Rodriguez’s testimonial in June this year.
As he walked onto the pitch in Rosaria, football’s all-time violence caused pandemonium in the stands as fans stirred up a sea of red flares and fireworks.