Lionel Messi, 35, has confirmed that he will be signing for Major League Soccer side Inter Miami, owned by Manchester United legend David Beckham.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner had been linked to the Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, which offered an alluring €400 million annually in exchange for his services. Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo are already members of the league.
However, Messi has stated in a joint interview with Spanish journals Mundo Deportivo and Sport that he is planning to move to the United States as his two-year contract at PSG expires this month.
“I made the decision that I am going to go to Miami, I still haven’t closed it one hundred percent. I’m missing some things, but we decided to continue on the path,” said Messi
Messi has been linked with a return to Barcelona in recent months, but he said that if the transaction fell through, he would like to live in much less of the spotlight and spend more time with his family outside of Europe.
“If the Barcelona thing didn’t work out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight, and think more about my family,” he said.
Former England captain David Beckham is a co-owner of the Miami franchise of the MLS.
The Florida squad, which is now last in the 15-team Eastern Conference and just fired coach Phil Neville, a former teammate of Beckham’s at Manchester United and England, is nonetheless a ferociously ambitious club.
