{"id":370161,"date":"2026-08-13T08:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370161\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:28:08","slug":"messi-plays-in-inter-miami-defeat-by-leon-only-hours-after-retirement-hint-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370161\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi plays in Inter Miami defeat by Leon only hours after retirement hint | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina star Lionel Messi hinted at retirement on Wednesday before featuring in Inter Miami\u2019s defeat by Leon.<\/p>\n

Published On 13 Aug 202613 Aug 2026<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi made an emotional return to action following his father\u2019s death and hinted at retirement, but it was not enough to prevent his Inter Miami side from being knocked out of the Leagues Cup in a 3-2 loss to Mexico\u2019s Leon.<\/p>\n

The Miami captain flew back to Florida from Argentina on Tuesday night after attending the funeral of his father, Jorge, on Sunday and came on at half-time to a massive ovation.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Jorge, who was his son\u2019s agent, died last week<\/a> at the age of 68.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, Messi posted an emotional tribute<\/a> to his father on social media, admitting that he wasn\u2019t sure he wanted to continue playing football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019ll do without you, I don\u2019t know how to go on,\u201d Messi wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just played football, and now I have serious doubts about continuing to do so for much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami led 1-0 on Wednesday, but two goals from Colombian Daniel Arcila fuelled Leon\u2019s come-from-behind victory, which made them the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament between MLS and LigaMx clubs.<\/p>\n

Messi had made himself available to Miami coach Guillermo Hoyos for the must-win final group match, having been absent when they lost to Monterrey on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Yannick Bright, who scored one of Miami\u2019s goals, called Messi\u2019s return \u201cincredible\u201d, adding he and other teammates just wanted to support their captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting it,\u201d Bright said. \u201cIt shows how much he cares. When I saw he was here, all I was thinking about was to give my 150 percent for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough situation. We try to stay close to him and support him as much as we can, but it\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InterInter Miami\u2019s Leo Messi, centre, is pressed by Le\u00f3n\u2019s Jose Alvarad, left, and James Rodriguez, right, during the Leagues Cup match [Jim Rassol-Imagn Images\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Brazilian teammate Casemiro, who joined Miami after the World Cup, said Messi was \u201can example for all of us\u201d in his commitment to playing during such a difficult time personally.<\/p>\n

Leon coach Javier Gandolfi echoed those thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday he demonstrated once more what he\u2019s made of,\u201d Gandolfi said of Messi. \u201cHe is a human being that is different to the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the first time Miami have been knocked out in the opening phase since the Leagues Cup was expanded in 2023.<\/p>\n

Miami lifted the trophy that year with Messi, shortly after he arrived at the Florida franchise alongside Spaniards Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.<\/p>\n

Miami reached the 2025 final but were beaten 3-0 by the Seattle Sounders \u2013 a match marked by a brawl after the final whistle, which led to Miami forward Luis Suarez being suspended for this year\u2019s edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina star Lionel Messi hinted at retirement on Wednesday before featuring in Inter Miami\u2019s defeat by Leon. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4101,57,3446,123,125,124,115,197,4571,4572,9611],"class_list":["post-370161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-argentina","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370161","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=370161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}