Where do Lionel Messi and Inter Miami go from here? (Video)

The end was abrupt and painful. The locker room was gloomy on Saturday night in South Florida. And somewhere in the haze of the biggest upset in Major League Soccer history, a startling reality set in: Lionel Messi will enter the final guaranteed year of his MLS contract without a single playoff series win.

He should change the league and Inter Miami. In some ways he certainly did. But his body failed him in 2023. Atlanta United stunned him in 2024. He entered his second MLS offseason with more uncertainty than hope, and one pressing question lurked in wait for him:

Where do Messi and Inter Miami go from here?

In some respects, the answer didn’t change Saturday night. They will continue to be the faces of the league in 2025. Thanks to FIFA, they will headline the Club World Cup, a platform on which their global ambitions could flourish.

But the rest of the answer depends on where MLS lets them go — and ultimately what Messi wants to do with the rest of his life.

Can Messi’s dream team get the boost it needs?

When Messi signed with Inter and MLS last June, he was given a two-and-a-half-year contract, reportedly with the option to extend a year and stay until 2026.

This option year is not listed in the league’s official “squad profiles.” But regardless, unless something completely unforeseen happens, Messi will be back next season. This also applies to Sergio Busquets. Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez are likely to be too – Alba has an option until 2025 in his contract and Suarez revealed last month that he would like to extend that. The core of the super team should remain intact.

In addition to the Fantastic Four, goalkeeper Drake Callender, defender Tomás Avilés, midfielder Federico Redondo, midfielder Julian Gressel, winger Facundo Farías (who missed the entire 2024 season due to a torn cruciate ligament), striker Leonardo Campana, midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi and other young players are under contract until 2025.

The club could also opt to bring back midfielder Matías Rojas, defender Marcelo Weigandt and midfielder Yannick Bright – all regulars in 2024.

Aside from star midfielder Diego Gomez, a breakout star headed to Brighton, England, Miami could essentially bounce back. And despite Saturday’s shocking defeat, that wouldn’t be a far-fetched idea. The Herons were the class of MLS in 2024. They won more points in the regular season than any other team in league history. They failed this month less because they were fatally flawed than because football is fickle.

Of course they also had flaws. Their midfield was permeable to the ball. Their defense was shaky. They are certainly aiming for a strong centre-back to partner Avilés in 2025. They cannot continue to concede more than 1.5 expected goals (xG) per game like last season and expect to be promoted to the MLS Cup.

However, they generally can’t add too many useful pieces within the current MLS spending restrictions.

Many useful players would like to play with Messi. Most can’t unless they take significant pay cuts, because MLS’s roster rules are among the most prohibitive and secretive in global soccer. Neymar, for example, is often linked with a move to Miami. But “today it’s impossible,” Miami head coach Tata Martino said recently. The only way to make this happen, Martino explained, would be for the league to “make the salary question more flexible.”

Technically, Miami could be a little more flexible than Martino suggested. But the broader point is that it is very difficult to match salaries and foreign players subject to certain caps any Star-strong MLS club to also build a strong, versatile team.

The hope — in Miami and elsewhere, although certainly not everywhere — is that the rules could change. Messi’s arrival emboldened Inter owner Jorge Mas and others at the top of the league to push for restrictions to be eased. When asked last winter why the easing hadn’t happened yet, MLS EVP of player strategy Todd Durbin said league officials had forgone incremental adjustments for 2024 because they “didn’t put us in a corner or a corner.” “Put them in a drawer” if they “wanted to”. to make broader changes or overhaul the system more broadly.”

Will that overhaul finally come this offseason? The committee that actually decides, the MLS Sports and Competition Committee, is scheduled to meet on November 20th in Los Angeles. A person close to the decision-making process told Yahoo Sports that the “salary cap and player investment model” was a key item on the committee’s agenda. Any proposed changes could then be approved by the MLS Board of Governors (the owners) at its final meeting of the year on December 12th.

A real overhaul could significantly change the calculation for Messi’s final years in Miami. And it could allow them to be more competitive on the biggest stage the MLS has ever had.

The countdown to Miami on the global stage of the Club World Cup begins

The first edition of the expanded Club World Cup is coming to the US next summer – if FIFA finds a way to finance it. Part of the plan to attract broadcasters and sponsors was apparently to give Inter Miami a free place in the tournament, even though the Herons had not qualified according to pre-determined criteria.

As a result, they are expected to face a UEFA Champions League side in a competitive game for the first time in June.

They could face Boca Juniors or River Plate; or Palmeiras, Flamengo or Fluminense.

They will certainly be playing in front of a global television audience many times larger than what they get for MLS games on Apple. They will have the chance to expand their international brand and establish Miami as a destination for players and fans long after Messi’s departure.

This will be the highlight of their 2025 campaign. Then they will prepare for another MLS clash, another Leagues Cup and another playoff run.

Whether it will be Messi’s last remains to be seen. He has repeatedly said just last month that he doesn’t know whether he will still be playing professional football in 2026. “I hope that at the beginning (of 2025) I will have a very good pre-season – which I didn’t have last year with all the travel we had – and from then on you’ll see how I do,” Messi said in an interview on the eve of the playoffs.

At the moment he is living “day by day”, in the moment, and enjoying it. He continues to serve as a star of the Argentina national team. They are on track to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

This landmark tournament, played across North America, could force Messi to extend his contract with Inter Miami beyond 2025. If he doesn’t want to play another full MLS season, he could benefit from a controversial wrinkle: League executives and owners are considering flipping the calendar and starting the 2026 season starting in August and ending in the spring. If they make the change — a possibility but not yet a probability — they would hold a unique, one-off competition in the spring of 2026 to close the gap, three people familiar with the discussions told Yahoo Sports. Messi could sign up for this as his swansong from Inter Miami.

But even then, his MLS window would be half closed.

Suddenly, after Saturday, the clocks in Miami – and at league headquarters – are audibly ticking.