2025 MLS season: Messi and Inter Miami face make-or-break campaign

Tom Weber

• Updated: 22 Feb 2025 18:45 GMT
• 4 min read

The 2025 Major League Soccer season kicks off on Saturday and all eyes will once again be on Inter Miami.

Despite winning the Supporters' Shield in 2024 for having the best regular season record, and doing it in style with a historic points tally of 74, Miami's campaign ended prematurely.

They shockingly fell at the first play-off hurdle against Atlanta United and decorated head coach Tata Martino subsequently resigned, while there was also a front-office reshuffle that sparked speculation over the increasing influence of Lionel Messi.

READ MORE: How many goals has Lionel Messi scored in his career?

Martino was replaced by Messi's former club and international teammate Javier Mascherano in what is his first senior coaching job. The 40-year-old is overseeing a side that is competing in a whopping five competitions and, in many ways, this is a make-or-break campaign not just for him but the entire club.

Miami need major trophies

With Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez all aged 36 or older, this is likely to be the final season in which all of these megastars will be able to play together.

Never before had a team been assembled with this much star power and, despite MLS' growing reputation and the new mechanism of intra-league cash transfers, it is improbable that something similar will be seen again anytime soon.

A lot of things went wrong for Inter Miami in their first years of existence. From having to play in Fort Lauderdale and being one of the worst sides in the league before Messi's arrival to sanctions for dodgy transfers.

Now, the Herons are finally the glamourous side Beckham always imagined. However, this structure is built on a shaky foundation.

Co-owner Jorge Mas has boasted that Miami have 'unlimited funds' to sign players, but it will be difficult to recreate a team like this within MLS' stringent roster regulations once the likes of Suarez, Busquets and Alba start dropping away.

Messi is the reason why Miami were able to sign these players in the first place. Under normal circumstances, all three of them would be Designated Players, in addition to Messi of course, but because of their friendship with the Argentine legend and the desire to play with him again, Suarez and Alba agreed to be regular senior players on less money than they would have otherwise been able to earn.

READ MORE: Lionel Messi's enduring appeal shown by INCREDIBLE Barcelona shirt sales

Miami are confident that Messi will remain through the 2026 season and take part in the World Cup on North American soil, but there is no guarantee that his friends will stay beyond this season.

Suarez has been complaining for years that it is becoming almost impossible for him to still cope with the physical demands of football. It would be a major shock if he were to sign another extension.

In short, Miami need to win now. Their window of opportunity is closing. Nobody expects them to triumph in the Club World Cup in the summer, but they need to challenge for MLS Cup, the Supporters' Shield and Leagues Cup (played out between MLS and Liga MX sides).

They got their season off to a flying start midweek with a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City in freezing, 'inhuman' conditions in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Next up is their MLS opener against NYCFC.

This is the season that will define Beckham's - and Messi's - MLS project. They showed last year, over the course of the regular season, that even without Messi there is substance and mettle behind the glitzy facade, but they will need to go one better this time around.