Courtesy: X
Lionel Messi, the Argentinian footballing superstar, reportedly has no plans to retire from football at Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer (MLS) club in the USA , after his contract runs out with them next year. The 37-year-old has recently expressed his desire to end his club football career in Argentina after rejoining Newell’s Old Boys in 2026, where he had spent the majority of youth career from 1995 to 2000.
Notably, after leaving Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi had joined Inter Miami on a two and a half year contract in the summer of 2023 as a free agent. Since then, the eight-time Ballon d’Or has scored 27 goals and managed 17 assists in 32 matches in all competitions, helping the American club secure the 2023 Leagues Cup trophy and reach the MLS playoffs this season after missing out on it last year.
If I go back to Argentina tomorrow, which I would love, the club I would be play for would be Newell's: Lionel Messi in 2016
As per the Spanish newspaper El Nacional, Lionel Messi is looking to join his boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina before closing the chapter on his playing days. In the year 2016, he spoke to the Spanish magazine El Planeta Urbano about the matter, and said, “If I go back to Argentina tomorrow, which I would love, the club I would be play for would be Newell's.”
Sometime later, Lionel Messi had also talked about the possibility of joining Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina, but he wasn’t quite certain about it. He was quoted as saying to TyC Sports, “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. 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.”
The former Barcelona player also spoke about the indifferent environment in his home country Argentina, stating that the life of a human could be taken from them at any point there. “It is very ugly to see the things that happen in Argentina, that you can go out on the street and people want to rob you and that they can kill you,” he concluded.
