Lionel Messi produced the most audacious and brilliant assist of his career during Inter Miami’s win over LA Galaxy and we cannot stop drooling over it.

Messi came off the bench to roars from the crowd at the start of the second half with Inter Miami holding a 1-0 lead over rock-bottom Galaxy.

Coach Javier Mascherano said the plan was to give Messi 45 minutes to ease him back into game fitness after the two-week layoff.

But the 38-year-old was needed to shake a lethargic Miami side into something resembling action. A Galaxy equaliser underlined the horizontal attitude of his team-mates.

The game stayed level until the 84th minute, with Messi producing a characteristic drive from long range after wriggling through several defenders.

Brilliant, of course, but nothing we haven’t seen before from the little maestro. The same couldn’t be said of Miami’s next goal.

Under less pressure than King Charles on tax day, international team-mate Rodrigo De Paul drove a pass into Messi’s feet.

Mere mortals would’ve held the ball up. Others would’ve returned it to the feet of De Paul in the hope of drawing defenders out of position.

But Messi had an eye for the ridiculous.

With a Galaxy defender breathing down his neck, the former Barcelona star sent his opponent for a parking lot hot dog with an imperious right-footed backheel.

Luis Suarez had peeled away from his defender to latch onto Messi’s brilliance. The finish was never in doubt and justifiably crowned the backheel with the goal it deserved.

American fans whooped and hollered in amazement. Hours later, thousands of their British cousins would need to submit their ID data or acquire a VPN to access footage of the filthiest assist imaginable.

WOW 😱

Filthy Messi dime to set up Luis Suarez for the @InterMiamiCF goal. pic.twitter.com/Caf0XlsBOo

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 17, 2025

Messi, returning to action after missing two games with a mild hamstring injury, seemed uncomfortable at times, grabbing his leg, but he pushed through and seemed to be more at ease as the game wore on.

Coach Javier Mascherano said Messi did not look 100 per cent, but was determined to play and was able to finish the game.

“Leo wants to play every single game,” Mascherano said. “He wanted to play in Orlando, also. It was impossible. It’s like this. You have to understand why Leo is Leo.

“He always wants to be on the pitch. He’s happy there. Sometimes we try to explain to him to go slowly, but at the end, when he feels good, he knows himself like no one, so we tried to give him minutes to get him ready for the next games.”

Messi has now reached 875 career goals, achieving the milestone in 1,116 matches – the youngest player ever to do so.

He is currently living the pre-retirement dream of playing with his mates, getting paid and embarrassing guys half his age.

But it’s the assist that we’ll all be talking about when the nights draw in and nuclear weapons are fired in anger.

Messi has several brilliant assists throughout his illustrious career. For sheer inventiveness, impudence and execution, yesterday’s might just be the best of the lot.

By Michael Lee

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