Lionel Messi in the U.S., a legend knowing ‘there’s not a lot of time left’

The shrieks grew louder as Lionel Messi sprinted toward the Guatemala penalty area.

The 50,000-plus fans at Commanders Field in Landover, Md., knew something special was about to happen. Messi had run onto a perfectly placed pass from teammate Ángel Di María that put the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner face-to-face with the opposing goalkeeper.

Over the course of Messi’s 20-year career, the Argentine has made many goalkeepers look foolish while making the game of football look easy. When Messi casually scooped the ball over helpless Guatemala goalkeeper Nicholas Hagan, the crowd’s roar reverberated around the ground. It was a vintage goal from the man that every soul in that stadium had come to see.

At 36, Messi and his magic can still cast a spell on those who adore him. As he jogged back to the center circle, fans in both Argentina and Guatemala jerseys chanted “Messi! Messi! Messi!” as they bowed to their hero.

Messi put on a show in Argentina’s final warm-up match before the Copa America in the United States. He sent a message that he was fit and ready to defend the trophy that Argentina won in 2021.

The reaction from the fans in attendance was also clear: “Don’t go, Messi. Please don’t go.”

Days before that match, Messi told ESPN Argentina that Inter Miami would be his final club. Sitting in a red-walled room with pictures of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph in the background and the gold World Cup trophy on a table to his left, Messi let everyone know that he understood the end of his career was looming.

But it was the answer just before that declaration that colors everything Messi has done over the last year in America — and likely all that will come next.

The interviewer, Martín Arévalo, noted that the end of Messi’s career is getting closer and asked Messi if he enjoys the game more because of that. Arévalo said he didn’t think the footballing world was ready for Messi to leave. He asked if Messi felt the same.

“I don’t think I am (prepared to leave football) either,” Messi replied. “I’ve done this all my life, I love playing ball and I enjoy training, the day-to-day, the games. I am a bit scared of it all ending, that’s always there. … But I try not to think about it. I try to enjoy it. I do that more now because I’m aware there’s not a lot of time left. … I enjoy those small details that I know I’ll miss when I stop playing.”

Messi is hardly the first icon to grapple with the unknown of what comes after their time in the sport so tethered to their identity comes to an end. It drove Tom Brady to more years and another Super Bowl in Tampa Bay. It still pushes LeBron James, approaching 40, and Diana Taurasi, 42, to continue in the NBA and WNBA, respectively.

It’s a big part of why stadiums around the country have filled up when Messi comes to town. Fans know that it could be one final chance to see a legend.

It will color each game Argentina plays in this Copa America, too. People will wonder whether this will be the last time they see him in sky blue and white; if another Copa trophy means there will be one less place to enjoy the magic he can make with a hint of space and the ball on his left foot. Or whether the right (or wrong) result this summer means his story with the national team isn’t over yet.

Messi no longer carries the burden of winning with Argentina. His triumph in Qatar gave him the freedom to come to the U.S. and enjoy the twilight of his career. It’s why nearly every highlight and every goal he scores as he terrorizes MLS this season is counterbalanced by a picture or a video of Messi simply enjoying life in Miami: sipping mate (a traditional South American herbal drink) in the bleachers at his sons’ academy games, dancing at a birthday party or waving for the Jumbotron at a Miami Heat playoff game.

“When one talks about players who have left their marks on the history of football, we try to extend their careers when we begin to see the end,” said Inter Miami coach Tata Martino. “I believe that Leo and his family are prepared or are visualizing and preparing themselves for when that ending will come. It comes for everyone.”

And maybe it’s exactly that balance, that sense of peace, that allows those small details he knows he’ll miss continue to be a joy and not a burden, to bring him back for another go rather than push him to the finish line.

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While his team was nearly 3,500 miles away in Canada to face the Vancouver Whitecaps, Messi walked to the center of the pitch at his home stadium in Fort Lauderdale next to his son Thiago, whose team was set to play in a youth tournament.

News reports swirled about Messi’s absence in Vancouver, how the Whitecaps might repay fans for the MLS game he was missing and what obligation Messi and Miami’s other stars had to play all the time. The Argentine, however, had a smile across his face as he got a rest day and spent time with family. He told the kids and parents in attendance that he hoped “it’s an experience that lasts for the rest of your life.”

The moment was a hint at how different life is for Messi in Florida. And why that was important to him coming to MLS.

“He can transform for a few moments into a normal person,” Martino said.

Messi is happy and settled in the U.S. He has enjoyed Miami’s nightlife on a few occasions, when he’s typically joined by his Inter Miami (and former Barcelona) teammates Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez, their significant others, and sometimes even Inter Miami co-owner David and Victoria Beckham.

“It’s a great group,” Messi told Infobae in June. “My sister is here too and one of my good friends is here with his family, as well. It’s a big group and when we can we go out to dinner or we’ll go to The BRESH if we can.”

Messi has been the guest of honor on two occasions at BRESH Miami, a Latin American-themed dance party that has staged events in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Buenos Aires. Yet, Messi admits that he spends most of his free time with his family at their home in Fort Lauderdale.

He runs errands with his wife Antonella, which has led to random encounters with fans at local businesses and traffic lights throughout the city. But Messi also attracts his share of Hollywood stars, athletes and musicians, such as Will Smith, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Daddy Yankee, Kim Kardashian, Bizarrap, Patrick Mahomes and DJ Khaled.

“I don’t always know who is going to be at the games,” Messi said. “I know that there’s always (a celebrity) there. I know the majority of them and I say hello, but I’m not told in advance.

“There have been times when they’re right there (near the pitch) and the result isn’t going our way and it’s not a good time. You’re thinking about the game.”

Messi himself is now an American pop culture celebrity. He was featured in a Michelob Super Bowl ad in February. (He also told the Big Time Podcast in Saudi Arabia that his sons have brought American football into the house and “it’s a great game.”) Messi starred in a Bad Boys: Ride or Die promotion. Murals depicting his arrival to Inter Miami and his World Cup triumph paint the walls of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. He recently launched Más+ Next Generation Beverage Co., which includes a new sports performance drink and four flavors that depict his storied career.

“Leo wanted to be involved in something he could proudly share with his family,” the company’s chief story officer Tyler Gray told The Athletic. “He has been actively involved throughout the development of this beverage, tasting potential formulas, helping choose flavor names and more.”

It’s too early to know whether Miami Punch, Orange D’Or, Berry Copa Crush and Limón Lime League will become household names in the U.S. Messi, however, has already entrenched himself as a major player in the most lucrative economy in the world.

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Given the circus around Messi’s arrival in Miami last summer, it is easy to forget his first few months playing in the United States were cut short.

Messi turned Inter Miami into what felt like an unstoppable force in the inaugural version of the Leagues Cup, a month-long tournament created by MLS and staged between its teams and those from Mexico’s Liga MX. Messi scored 10 goals in seven games en route to claiming Inter Miami’s first trophy.

But he managed just six MLS appearances after that in 2023, and only four starts. He had one goal and two assists. Without its superstar, Miami fell short of the playoffs.

This year has been a reminder of what it looks like when a healthy Messi is on the field in Inter Miami’s pink and black.

Through 12 games, Messi already has 25 goal contributions. His 12 goals and 13 assists are tied for third and first, respectively, in the league. Flicking on an Inter Miami match is a reminder that Messi can submit a game and an opponent to his will at any moment. Last month, in a 6-2 win over the New York Red Bulls, Messi set MLS records with five assists and six goal contributions.

“What we saw is surprising because it hasn’t been seen before in our sport, but as a teammate and knowing Leo, nothing surprises me because that’s the quality player he is,” said Suarez, who had a hat trick against the Red Bulls that was somewhat overshadowed.

Inter Miami sat at the bottom of MLS when Messi arrived in 2023 and is now perched atop the league. The team and its quartet of ex-Barcelona stars is never out of a game, often clawing back from early deficits to snatch points. And while they limped out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, they have two more trophies firmly in their sights: the MLS Supporters’ Shield, given to the regular season champions, and MLS Cup.

But Messi has always been about more than just what he can do on the field.

Commercially, Messi’s impact has been transformative for the league. Teams around MLS are selling out stadiums when Miami comes to town. Sporting Kansas City moved its game from Children’s Mercy Park (capacity 18,467) to the NFL’s Arrowhead Stadium and still sold it out, with 72,610 fans making it the fourth-largest standalone crowd in MLS history.

When Messi doesn’t play, it’s bigger news than when he does. Before the Vancouver debacle, his absence due to injury from a game in Hong Kong this preseason during an international tour sparked an international incident.

Miami is aiming to surpass $200 million in revenue this year, which would more than triple its revenue in 2022.

“We are talking about the greatest of all time in the world’s biggest sport, in a moment that the world is more interconnected than ever and that we have more technology than ever,” Inter Miami co-president Xavi Asensi told The Athletic earlier this year. “So put all this together and it’s atomic, it’s massive.”

The hope, of course, is that Messi can be more than an on-field or commercial lift for MLS.

David Beckham’s arrival in 2007 was a moment that changed the league forever via the introduction of the designated player rule. Time is ticking down on MLS to be able to use the cultural moment created by Messi’s on-field exploits and his ability to lift everything around him. So far, the league has opted for a more cautious route.

That ticking clock is a reality Argentina is trying to cope with ahead of this Copa America.

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Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni has done his best to deflect questions from journalists about Messi’s pending retirement. Scaloni was a teammate of Messi with Argentina in 2006. He’s now one of the principal reasons Messi is so comfortable in Argentina’s colors.

Doubts about how much longer Messi will represent Argentina intensified last fall after his hectic first summer with Inter Miami. A lingering leg muscle injury had halted his spectacular run of form in Leagues Cup but Scaloni included Messi in Argentina’s squad for World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Peru in October. Scaloni was asked if Argentina should begin to grow accustomed to playing without their star captain.

“Let’s keep in mind that he’s still here,” Scaloni said sternly. “What kind of thinking is ‘When he is gone’? The truth is (Messi) is still active. Let’s leave him alone. Are we already retiring him?”

Messi certainly didn’t help to defuse the situation when in June 2023 he told Chinese outlet Titan Sports that he would retire before the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “This (2022) was my last World Cup,” said Messi. “I’ll see how things go, but in principle, I won’t go to the next World Cup.”

Messi will turn 37 on June 24, and other than repeating as a Copa America champion, there’s truly nothing left for him to accomplish in football. “I can say that I’m a world champion,” Messi said in 2023. “I’ve accomplished everything.”

As that reality begins to settle for Messi’s teammates, they’re doing their best to focus on the present.

“For now, let’s not talk about Messi not continuing,” Argentina midfielder Exequiel Palacias told Reuters in April. “You can never imagine the national team without Messi. We all want him to be eternal and always play with us.”

This week, during Argentina’s Copa America media day, Messi posed for a picture with Di Maria, who has already announced this tournament will be his last with Argentina. As the photographers snapped pictures of the two Rosario-born playmakers, Argentina’s midfield general Rodrigo De Paul said cryptically, “Get your shots in now because this is it. They won’t be at the next Copa America. Let’s go, because this is the last one.”

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¿Y si es el último concierto? Bueno, festejemos ❤️ pic.twitter.com/6MTTuB9LUW

— CONMEBOL Copa América™️ (@CopaAmerica) June 18, 2024

Laughter followed, but De Paul’s spontaneous quip came from a deeper place. The 30-year-old Atletico Madrid midfielder confessed to Spanish-language outlet Telemundo that Messi’s retirement from the national team is a topic that isn’t kept hidden away among Argentina’s tight-knit group of players.

“I’m scared of the day that Messi is no longer with the national team,” De Paul said. “I talk about it with Leo often. Everything is so much easier with him (on the pitch). The advantages that we have thanks to him. Everything we do is about him. (Messi) always says to me, ‘You lift up the phone and call me if the national team is ever in need. I’ll always be a part of you guys.”

In a much more casual setting than a pre-World Cup qualifier, earlier this month Scaloni finally opened up about life after Messi.

“It’s going to happen someday. The longer it takes, the better,” Scaloni told Telemundo. “We’re going to miss (Messi) at some point. It is what it is. (Diego) Maradona left the national team and someday Leo will, too. The coach won’t always be the same person. Things change, but in the meantime, we have to enjoy this.”

Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs through 2025 with an option for one additional season. Meanwhile, many fans and football administrators are hoping Messi will delay his international retirement and play in a sixth World Cup in 2026.

So much of the marketing and promotion that will surround the North American World Cup will presumably be focused on Messi. His influence on the sport in America cannot be understated as a potential lift for a sport that’s expected to experience an era of unprecedented growth.

But first comes the Copa America, the major tournament that may yet be Messi’s farewell from the international stage.

How Argentina fares may or may not impact his decision. A second consecutive Copa America title could motivate him to push for a second straight World Cup trophy. Success this summer also could lead Messi to go out on top. If Argentina don’t win the Copa America, Messi can step away gracefully and pass the baton to the national team’s highly touted younger generation.

One thing is certain: Messi will keep us on the edge of our seats this summer, not just for what he does on the field, but as we wonder what it will mean in the totality of his story.

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)