{"id":352497,"date":"2026-07-25T23:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352497\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T23:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:25:10","slug":"why-lionel-messi-isnt-playing-for-inter-miami-vs-cf-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352497\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Lionel Messi Isn\u2019t Playing for Inter Miami vs. CF Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Less than a week after losing the 2026 World Cup final to Spain, Argentinian soccer stars and club teammates Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul will miss their second Inter Miami match in a row, not making themselves available for Saturday\u2019s away fixture against CF Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/world-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup<\/a> finalists missed the team\u2019s first game back from the international break, a clash with the Chicago Fire, which featured a heart-stopping own-goal to open the scoring against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/how-robert-lewandowski-fared-chicago-fire-mls-debut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Lewandowski\u2019s side<\/a>, before Luis Su\u00e1rez stepped up with a brace to help salvage a 3\u20132 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">Earlier on Saturday, both Messi and De Paul also officially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-removed-2026-mls-all-star-roster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pulled out of the 2026 MLS All-Star game<\/a> and its surrounding festivities, which are scheduled for this week in Charlotte, culminating in a game against the Liga MX All-Stars on Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">Messi and De Paul are taking advantage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/when-will-lionel-messi-play-inter-miami-next-world-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">21-day rest period<\/a> as negotiated by FIFAPro, a global players\u2019 union. At the same time, their absence from the All-Star game rests on an agreement between MLS and the MLS Players\u2019 Association, which forgives them a potential suspension for their absences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">While the pair have taken a full week off and will likely continue to be absent from Inter Miami until sometime in August, most other MLS players who featured at the World Cup have returned to their teams, including nine that feature in the updated All-Star roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"80\">In addition to missing Messi and De Paul, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/inter-miami-cf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami<\/a> will be without the injured Tadeo Allende, David Ayala, Maxi Falc\u00f3n and Gonzalo Luj\u00e1n. Young players Santiago Morales and Alexander Shaw are out on international duty with the U-20 U.S. men\u2019s national team at the Concacaf Championship, which serves as qualifying for the U-20 World Cup and LA 2028 Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Luis Su\u00e1rez Turns Back the Clock<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01kychdbm9wbabm5qg62.jpg\" alt=\"Luis Su\u00e1rez\" title=\"Luis Su\u00e1rez\" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"8f\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Su\u00e1rez can\u2019t be stopped right now. | Chris Arjoon\/Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8j\">While Messi and De Paul aren\u2019t with the Herons to offer their skills and veteran experience, 39-year-old Luis Su\u00e1rez has shown that he is still productive. With a brace against Chicago, the former Uruguay frontman has eight goals and five assists in 703 minutes this season, bringing him to 50 goals in 100 games with Inter Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8o\">He is likely to line up top with Germ\u00e1n Berterame, the marquee offseason signing who has been inconsistent in his performance level and production. Behind them, reliable midfielder Yannick Bright is likely to start before heading off to Charlotte as an MLS All-Star replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8r\">Miami sit comfortably in second place in the Eastern Conference heading into the matchup with 34 points through 16 games, trailing the Supporters\u2019 Shield-leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/nashville-sc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nashville SC<\/a>, who top the table with 39 points heading into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/mls-predictions-all-star-week-matchday-18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matchday 18<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/cf-montreal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Montr\u00e9al<\/a> sit at the other end of the table with 15 points, 13th in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>READ THE LATEST MLS NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FC<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a week after losing the 2026 World Cup final to Spain, Argentinian soccer stars and club&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-352497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}