Inter Miami

Inter Miami star Lionel Messi is expected to miss the team's next match after leaving Wednesday's contest with a leg injury.

According ESPN.com, Inter Miami head coach coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino declared that Messi is likely to sit out Saturday's MLS match against D.C. United, saying: "I don't want to take any risks, but I imagine that he won't be available for Saturday's game. That's the only thing I can say about it now. We'll have some tests soon and we'll see how he feels."

Messi tallied a goal and an assist in Inter Miami's 3-1 win over Nashville SC in the CONCACAF Champions Cup's round of 16 on Wednesday, but Martino noted that when he left the game in the 50th minute, it was due to a "muscle overload in his right leg."

The 36-year-old Messi signed with Inter Miami last year after dominating at the highest level of soccer with Barcelona and then Paris Saint-Germain for nearly two decades.

Messi has been a force when he has played for Miami, scoring 11 goals in 14 matches across all competitions last season and five goals in five matches so far this season.

However, given Messi's age and the investment Inter Miami have made in arguably the greatest soccer player of all time, they have been careful not to take any chances with his health.

Case in point, Inter Miami held Messi out of last weekend's loss to CF Montréal, which was the first defeat of the season for Miami, who also have two wins and one draw.

Martino noted that Messi missing some matches is something the club planned for, saying: "We knew when the season started that Messi was not going to play all games. If he's not playing or we have to replace him, for me it's not just missing out any other player, he's the best player of all time."

Messi is a legendary figure in the world of soccer, having won eight Ballon d'Or awards as the best player in the world. He is also a four-time UEFA Champions League winner, a one-time FIFA World Cup champion with Argentina and is second in career goals scored with over 800, placing him behind only Cristiano Ronaldo.

Inter Miami do not have a suitable replacement for Messi when he is unable to play, but they do have another veteran superstar on the roster who can pick up the slack in Uruguay's Luis Suárez.

Suárez, who is 15th in career goals with over 500, was previously Messi's teammate at Barcelona, and they have reunited in MLS.

The 37-year-old Suárez already has four goals in his first season with Inter Miami, and he was the beneficiary of a feed from Messi on a goal against Nashville.

Suárez will be tasked with leading the way for Miami if Messi cannot play against D.C. United on Saturday. After that, Messi's next chance to play will come March 23 against the New York Red Bulls.

Florida belongs to Inter Miami.

Led by Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez braces, Inter Miami annihilated Orlando City, 5-0 on Saturday.

It was quite a night for Suárez, who opened his MLS account and added two assists on the evening, while Messi was up to his usual tricks:

When the club brought Messi's former Barcelona teammate to South Beach, this was the type of performance it was surely envisioning, and the duo didn't disappoint.

That had MLS fans and pundits alike more than a little impressed on social media:

The duo will face far tougher competition in league play this year, certainly, but one of the fears regarding Suárez was that the 37-year-old may have understandably lost a step or two.

That's likely the case, but it sure didn't matter on Saturday, and even if he doesn't have the legs of yesteryear, he's still a dangerous finisher. Blowout wins also allow Inter Miami to cut his evening short, as they did after 67 minutes.

Messi, meanwhile, went the full 90. Not too shabby for the 36-year-old.

In all, this was a dismantling of epic proportions. Inter Miami actually conceded the majority of possession, holding 47.4 percent, but was devastating on the counter-attack. That led to an 11-9 advantage on shots (6-3 advantage on shots and goals), though Orlando City did scrounge together five corners to just one for Miami.

None of that particularly mattered, because the moment Suárez and Messi found any pocket of space—and Orlando City provided plenty of them—they pounced. Make it two wins, a draw and seven points for Inter Miami out of three games, while Orlando City remains without a point after two contests.

The Professional Referee Organization (PRO) replaced the referee for Saturday's match between Inter Miami and Orlando City after photos surfaced of him wearing an Inter Miami shirt, according to The Athletic's Tom Bogert.

PRO confirmed to Bogert it removed Guiherme Ceretta from the fixture, citing "a potential conflict."

This comes amid the PRO's continued lockout of the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA), which is the union for referees in North America. Due to the lockout, replacement officials are working MLS games to open the 2024 season.

Per Bogert, PRO is leaning on refs who have worked at the college and youth levels along with those experienced in lower divisions professionally.

The Athletic's Pablo Maurer reported MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez issued a memo to the league's board of governors saying MLS is "pleased with the performance" of the replacement referees so far.

PSRA president Peter Manikowski told Maurer, however, that "hard metrics" point to the difference between the replacements and those in the union. Manikowski cited a high number of video reviews along with "the amount of time the ball is in play, number of incorrect offside decisions stopping good attacks, and number of incorrect/avoidable yellow/red cards."

Ceretta's demotion perhaps points to another issue in that PSRA refs have likely been more thoroughly vetted and are more aware of removing any perceived conflicts of interest.

Inter Miami had a bit of a rough preseason, but the Lionel Messi-led side opened the MLS season in style.

Led by goals from Robert Taylor and Diego Gómez—the first assisted from Messi and the second from Luis Suárez—Inter Miami opened its domestic campaign with a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake.

This was largely the Messi show, as usual. On the first goal, he perfectly threaded a pass behind the back line to a streaking Taylor, who got off a shot that probably should have been saved but found its way into the back of the net.

On the second, he took out about three defenders with a fantastic run before finding Suárez, who first-touched a pass to Gómez for the game's second goal.

Those arguably weren't even the coolest Messi moments on the night, however.

There was another attempt at an Olimpico, for one; or Real Salt Lake putting defenders on both posts to deny him from scoring on a free kick; and the moment of the night was Messi chipping a downed defender to his advantage, creating space for a shot attempt:

So yeah, Messi received his fair share of love on social media after the match, with Suárez getting props for his assist as well:

This was a convincing performance for Inter Miami, which held 55.1 percent of possession, had a slight advantage in corner kicks (6-5) and held an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal (though overall was outshot 17-15).

Still, the club can't afford to be little more than the Messi Show, and at times it appeared it was trending in that direction on Wednesday night. This is a team with a lot of aging players, so there will naturally be concerns about how they survive a long season.

So long as Inter Miami has Messi, however, it has a chance.

The Hong Kong government expressed its disappointment in Lionel Messi not playing in the friendly between the country and Inter Miami on Sunday, as the Argentine superstar reportedly recovers from a hamstring issues.

"Regarding Messi not playing the match today, the Government, as well as all football fans, are extremely disappointed about the organizer's' arrangement. The organizer owes all football fans an explanation," the Hong Kong government said in a statement, per ESPN. "The Major Sports Events Committee (MSEC) will take follow-up actions with the organizer according to the terms and conditions, which includes reducing the amount of funding as a result of Messi not playing the match."

The MSEC had originally granted $1.92 million for the event. Tatler Asia, the match's organizing body, said in its own statement it had no knowledge that both Messi and teammate Luis Suárez would miss the match.

"Despite some news reports, Tatler did not have any information about the non-participation of Messi or Suárez prior to kick off," the organization noted. "Messi and Suárez were deemed unfit to play by their team's medical department, to everyone's, including our, disappointment."

Inter Miami manager Gerardo Martino said Messi was dealing with "swelling in the adductor [muscle]" and that the medical staff advised that playing him would be "very risky."

Suárez, meanwhile, had a "problem with his knee" and "woke up swollen after the second match in [Saudi] Arabia," leaving him unable to participate against Hong Kong.

"We understand the disappointment from the crowd who came to the stadium today that Leo and Luis were absent," Martino added.

That crowd chanted "refund" throughout the match, clearly displeased that Miami's top stars weren't on the pitch. Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba also started the match on the bench, though both were subbed on after an hour.

Nonetheless, Inter Miami won 4-1 behind goals from Robert Taylor, Lawson Sunderland, Leonardo Campana and Ryan Sailor. It was the club's first win in its postseason tour, which previously included a draw against El Salvador and losses to FC Dallas, Al Hilal and Al Nassr.

Fans were also left disappointed in the Al Nassr friendly, as Cristiano Ronaldo didn't play due to injury and Messi only made a brief cameo as an 83rd-minute sub.

Inter Miami star Lionel Messi will not play in Thursday's friendly match against Al-Nassr in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

According to ESPN FC, Messi was not included in the team sheet for the match, which was originally being billed as "The Last Dance" due to the fact that it could have been the final time Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo faced each other.

Messi's absence from the lineup comes after Al-Nassr head coach Luís Castro announced Wednesday that Ronaldo would miss the match since he had yet to full recover from an injury, per Kyle Bonn of Sporting News.

Messi is dealing with a hamstring injury, while Ronaldo is working his way back from a calf ailment.

ESPN's Chris Wright noted that Messi and Ronaldo have played 36 competitive matches against each other during their illustrious careers. Messi has the upper hand with 16 wins, 11 losses and nine draws.

Their most recent competitive meeting was in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League group stage, which saw Ronaldo score twice in a 3-0 win for Juventus over Barcelona.

More recently, Messi and Ronaldo faced off in a friendly in January 2023 between Paris Saint-Germain and the Saudi Pro League XI. Ronaldo scored twice and Messi scored once, as the Saudi side won 5-4.

Both Messi and Ronaldo are reaching the twilight of their careers, as Messi is 36, while Ronaldo will turn 39 on Monday.

Even if neither of them were to play another match, they will always be considered two of the greatest soccer players of all time.

Messi is second all time with 821 goals across all competitions, plus he is a four-time UEFA Champions League winner with Barcelona and a one-time FIFA World Cup and one-time Copa América winner with Argentina, as well as an eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, two-time FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner and one-time FIFA World Cup Silver Boot winner.

Ronaldo is soccer's all-time leading goal scorer with 873 goals, plus he won the UEFA Champions League four times with Real Madrid and once with Manchester United, and he won the UEFA European Championship with Portugal in 2016. Ronaldo is also a five-time winner of the Ballon d'Or and he won the UEFA European Championship Golden Boot in 2020.

Messi and Ronaldo spent most of their careers with top-tier European clubs and faced each other in many big matches, but that may no longer be the case with Messi in the United States and Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia.

Unless another friendly is scheduled in the future, it is possible Messi and Ronaldo have played against each other for the final time.

Inter Miami and veteran striker Luis Suárez agreed to a one-year contract with an option for 2025 on Friday.

Suárez joins Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba among the former FC Barcelona teammates in Miami. Messi and Suárez played together at Barcelona from 2014 to 2020, forming perhaps the most dominant 1-2 scoring punch of this generation. Barcelona won La Liga four times and were the 2015 Champions League winner during their time as teammates.

Messi's arrival at Inter Miami this summer stoked perhaps the largest increase in fan interest MLS has ever seen. Fans paid thousands of dollars above retail price just to get in and see the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, and he did not disappoint. Messi led Inter Miami, a basement dweller before his signing, to a Leagues Cup championship—their first title of any sort since entering MLS as an expansion franchise in 2020.

The addition of Suárez will no doubt increase hype heading into next season for MLS' most-watched team.

Suárez most recently played for Grêmio in Brazil. Since leaving Barcelona in 2020, he bounced around from Atlético Madrid to Nacional to Grêmio and has now settled in Miami for at least the next year.

It's clear Suárez is past his prime at age 36, but that's not going to stop the hype train.

Lionel Messi's Inter Miami has quite the preseason plan.

The MLS side announced Monday it will host Argentine side Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys at the DRV PNK Stadium on Thursday, Feb. 15 as part its preseason preparations.

"I am delighted to welcome my beloved Newell's to our home here in Miami. It will be a special match due to everything Newell's Old Boys means to me," Inter Miami manager Tata Martino said in the club's statement. "It will also be a good opportunity to prepare for what will surely be an exciting season."

Both Martino and Messi hail from Rosario, where Newell's Old Boys plays. Messi joined the club at the age of six and played there for six years before signing with Barcelona, where he spent the majority of his career. He later would add stops at PSG and now Inter Miami.

Inter Miami will also travel to Saudi Arabia for the Riyadh Season Cup and matchups against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr and Al-Hilal.

The club will additionally face the El Salvadoran national team before embarking on an extensive international preseason tour that will include matchups against the Hong Kong national team and the J1 League champions Vissel Kobe alongside the trip to Saudi Arabia.

Inter Miami will indeed play a preseason match against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr FC on Feb. 1 in Saudi Arabia, the club announced on Monday.

Lionel Messi's side will also face Al-Hilal on Jan. 29.

"This is another major opportunity to create lasting relationships with passionate fans," Inter Miami chief business officer Xavier Asensi said in a statement. "We are excited to connect with new supporters in Saudi Arabia, and also hope people all over the world will be tuning in to see a pair of dream matches like these."

Inter Miami's inclusion in the Riyadh Season Cup will be its first international tour, though back in November the club denied its participation.

Football fans will be thrilled to see Messi and Ronaldo, one of the truly great rivalries in the history of the sport while Messi was at Barcelona and his counterpart was at Real Madrid, play out at least one final time.

The two have gone head-to-head 35 times, with Messi holding a 16-10-9 record in those contests. Messi scored 21 goals and 12 assists in the head-to-head showdowns, while Ronaldo put up 20 goals and an assist.

But it will also be a chance for an Inter Miami team that was reborn after Messi's arrival to sharpen its skills against solid competition.

"These matches will offer important tests for our team, which will benefit us as we approach the new season," Inter Miami's chief soccer officer and sporting director, Chris Henderson, said in the club's statement. "We're excited for our group to get the chance to go up against teams with as much quality as Al-Hilal and Al Nassr."

Inter Miami is reportedly set to sign Messi's former attacking partner at Barcelona, striker Luis Suárez. Now, the duo may have the chance to go toe-to-toe with Ronaldo one last time.