Lionel Messi’s Major League Soccer season is over. So, what’s next for the Argentine World Cup champion in the United States? A look ahead to 2025-26.

Disbelief dawned upon more than 20,000 fans at Chase Stadium on Saturday night when the referee blew the final whistle and ended Inter Miami's 2024 MLS season. The favorites to win MLS Cup crashed out of the playoffs in the first round,

The end was abrupt and painful. On Saturday night in South Florida, the locker room was somber. And somewhere amid the haze of the biggest upset in Major League Soccer history, a startling reality set in: Lionel Messi will enter the final guaranteed year of his MLS contract without a single playoff series victory.