BUENOS AIRES — Lionel Messi is about to play his last match for Argentina, with his 208th appearance set to be an emotional farewell in a friendly against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. Argentina's most-capped player and record goal scorer announced his retirement from the national team on 31 August, six weeks after the World Cup final defeat by Spain, saying he had nothing more to give. Coach Lionel Scaloni insists that if Messi ever wants to carry on, he can, and there is no embarrassment in changing his mind, but that chapter seems closed.
His club career goes on. Messi's contract with Inter Miami runs to the end of the 2028 season, but it is reviewed year by year, and nobody close to him expects him to walk away a day before he has to. It is quite likely he will renew it if he feels, mentally and physically, up for it. While he has never really planned beyond his next game, the shape of what lies ahead is already clear. He will stay inside soccer because he would struggle to live without it. Messi used to like the idea of being a sporting director or an adviser to the president, and when asked recently whether he would rather be a coach or an owner, he chose owner, noting a coach lives and dies by every Saturday while an owner shapes direction from further back — though he would want to be involved in everything.
The groundwork is being laid in Spain. He bought UE Cornella, on the edge of Barcelona and in the fifth tier, in April as a nursery for young players. CD Eldense, in the second division, announced Messi as its new owner on 1 October, subject to authorization from the Spanish sports council, the CSD. Eldense will lead his soccer operation, with the target this season to avoid relegation, so former Villarreal boss Javi Calleja got the job with the arrival of the new owner. The plan is to run both clubs through trusted people who will act as a link until he can give them his full attention. For now he follows every Eldense match closely on his computer, and after Eldense beat Real Oviedo by four goals to one, his first message as owner was an Instagram post that read "Aupa Deportivo." The pull of his name was immediate, with around a dozen sponsors coming forward within a couple of days.
In Uruguay, he and Luis Suarez founded Deportivo LSM in May 2025, which won promotion to the country's third tier in its first season. A wider network of clubs was discussed, but the sums needed to lift them up the divisions have cooled that idea and it is not on the table today, with the focus on whether Eldense can establish itself in La Liga. As part of his Inter Miami contract, he will have some shares in the club when he retires, though a franchise of his own is not part of the plan. A return to Newell's Old Boys in Rosario, where he played as a child, has never been formally discussed, and while it may have crossed his mind alongside ideas of Barcelona or Napoli, nobody close to the player expects it. Everything is built around Europe and Miami, with the family home waiting in Castelldefels, close to the sea and Barcelona.
Youth soccer remains a second passion alongside ownership. Newell's will be one of 16 academies at this year's Messi Cup, a tournament for Under-16 academies he funds with his time and money that began in 2025 with eight teams. Last year organizers expected him for one or two games, perhaps only the final, but he sat through every match on every day. This year's edition doubles to 16 teams from 25 October at Inter Miami's facilities in Florida, including Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Arsenal and UE Cornella. Away from the field, Forbes put his net worth at about $1.1 billion in June, with earnings of around $140 million over the previous year split between soccer and business, led by the lifetime Adidas deal he signed in 2017. His portfolio includes MiM Hotels, six boutique properties from Ibiza to Andorra run by Melia under a rental agreement since 1 November 2025, the Carrasco M development of 24 homes by the Parana river in Rosario with Angel Di Maria's property agency handling sales, a partnership in restaurant chain El Club de la Milanesa planning five branches in Catalonia, and a mate collection with Stanley, the brand's first multi-year deal with an athlete.