Lionel Messi and Inter Miami complete new contract. He'll remain with the club at least into 2026

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi has finally agreed to a new contract with Inter Miami, a deal that required several months to complete and ensures that the sport’s biggest icon will be with the Major League Soccer club for its planned move into a new stadium next year.

The deal was announced Thursday, one day before Inter Miami’s playoff opener against Nashville. Messi’s team — the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference — will play host to Game 1 of that best-of-three series on Friday night.

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Inter Miami's Lionel Messi arrives for an MLS soccer match against Atlanta United, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi arrives for an MLS soccer match against Atlanta United, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Fans cheer while Inter Miami's Lionel Messi warms up before an MLS soccer match against Atlanta United, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Fans cheer while Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi warms up before an MLS soccer match against Atlanta United, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi, left, runs with the ball as Atlanta United midfielder Tristan Muyumba, right, defends during the first half of an MLS soccer match, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi reacts after scoring a goal during the first half of an MLS soccer match against Atlanta United, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

The team announced the move in a social media post, one showing Messi signing the contract inside the new stadium that remains under construction. “HE’S HOME,” the team said in the post.

“It makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality — playing in this stadium, at Miami Freedom Park,” Messi said in remarks distributed by the club. “Since I arrived in Miami, I’ve been very happy, so I’m truly glad to keep going here.”

Inter Miami said it was a three-year deal through 2028. The notion of Messi playing two or three more seasons certainly would serve as a boost to ticket sales at the stadium the team has been building near Miami International Airport. The team has been selling ticket packages and taking deposits on seats in the new park for more than a year, all with the assumption that Messi would remain part of the franchise.

His decision to stay in Miami is big for both the club and for MLS. Messi’s was the league’s MVP last season and is the overwhelming choice to win the award again this year, which would make him only the second two-time winner in league history and the first to win it in back-to-back years. Preki won the MVP award in 1997 and 2003.

“To enjoy him, watching him enjoy doing the things he is doing, he’s very, very competitive and he tries to translate that to the team,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said Thursday. “The best way to help him is trying to do the right things … he has to be comfortable on the pitch. He’s comfortable when things are working in the right way.

“With him, when we do things the right way, we’ll have many chances to have success.”

Messi won MLS’ Golden Boot this season after scoring 29 goals, five more than LAFC’s Denis Bouanga and Nashville’s Sam Surridge. He also had 19 assists, and his 48 total goal contributions was one shy of matching the MLS record of 49 set by Carlos Vela in 2019.

This season, Messi had multiple goals in five consecutive games — making him the first MLS player to achieve such a feat — and had 10 multigoal games, another league record. The previous mark was eight such games.

“We promised our fans that we would dream big to build an iconic club. A club that represents the passion, hard work and dedication of all those that came before us to create a Miami built on dreams,” Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas said. “Leo signing through 2028 is an ode to our amazing city.”

Messi is 38, which makes this contract likely his last as a professional player. He has spent well over half his life playing at the pro level, making his debut with Barcelona as a 17-year-old in 2004.

It is not clear how long Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and generally considered the sport’s biggest star, plans to keep playing. He led Argentina to the World Cup title in 2022; his country will aim to defend that trophy when the tournament is played next June and July in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

His Inter Miami team will look different in 2026, for certain. Messi agreed to join the club in July 2023 on what was a 2 1/2-year contract, and it wound up becoming a reunion of longtime Barcelona teammates when he was eventually joined by Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez.

Busquets and Alba are both retiring after this season; Alba made the decision to step away just months after agreeing to a three-year contract. Suarez’s future is unclear, and it’s believed retirement could be an option for him as well.

But Messi will play on, into 2026 anyway. He and the team were closing in toward the finish line of this drawn-out contract negotiation last month, and it wasn’t clear why it took several more weeks to get Messi to finally sign the deal.

His first contract with Inter Miami was worth an estimated $150 million at the time. It immediately began paying off, with Inter Miami winning its first trophy — the 2023 Leagues Cup — shortly after he arrived.

Last season, when he won the MLS MVP award for the first time, he did so while missing 15 of Inter Miami’s 34 regular-season matches because of injuries or commitments to Argentina’s national team. Even with those absences, Inter Miami won its first Supporters’ Shield by having MLS’ best regular-season record — then got upset in the first round of the playoffs.

The club has seen a massive rise in global popularity with Messi on the roster. His pink No. 10 jersey has been MLS’ highest seller since he joined the league, and he has added to his massive off-field business empire since coming to the U.S. — even starring in a Super Bowl ad last year.

“Our vision was to bring the best players to Inter Miami and to this city, and that’s exactly what we have done,” Inter Miami co-owner and soccer icon David Beckham said. “We brought the best player to have ever played the game to our city. That shows our commitment to Miami, but it also shows Leo’s commitment to the city, to the club, and to the game. He’s still as committed as he’s ever been and he still wants to win.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in two criminal cases alleging sprawling schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, authorities said.

Portland coach Chauncey Billups is charged in an indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by La Cosa Nostra crime families, authorities said. Heat guard Terry Rozier is accused in a separate case of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said.

Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges and were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday.

In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, said Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”

The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said. The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by Mafia families, he said.

“My message to the defendants who’ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out,” Nocella said.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday morning with Billups. Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement that his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.” Trusty said the FBI had previously said his client was not a target in the probe.

But at 6 a.m. “they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” Trusty said. ”It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.”

In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing them to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.

The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.

Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

The NBA, which had investigated Rozier previously, had no immediate comment.

Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday evening in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning. The team did not immediately comment on the arrest.

The case was brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP. Boston drafted the former Colorado star with the No. 3 pick overall in 1997.

The player known as Mr. Big Shot also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Denver Nuggets.

The 49-year-old Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota.

A game involving Rozier that has been in question was a matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so it did not seem particularly unusual that Rozier was shut down for the season’s final games.

In that game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter but well below his usual total output for a full game.

Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

A prop is a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds or assists.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington, and Reynolds reported from Miami. Associated Press writers David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami complete new contract. He’ll remain with the club at least into 2026

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