In Top Form, Messi Takes Inter Miami to Conference Finals

After more than two years of historic off-field success, and some fleeting bursts of triumph on the pitch for Inter Miami, the full vision of Lionel Messi playing in Major League Soccer is finally coming into view.

Messi led Inter Miami to a victory Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinal, scoring one goal and assisting on three others in a 4–0 rout of FC Cincinnati. Inter Miami will now face NYCFC on Saturday for a berth to MLS Cup. 

Healthy and thriving, Messi is bringing Inter Miami to unprecedented heights. The sixth-year club has already advanced much further in the MLS playoffs than it has before, with a 2023 win in the Leagues Cup with Mexico’s Liga MX previously serving as a franchise high point. 

The Argentine star is personally on a tear not seen before his June 2023 arrival to the league. This postseason has included a league-record 12 goal contributions from Messi, with six goals scored adding to six assists. That added to his winning of the 2025 MLS Golden Boot as the league’s top scorer during the regular season, and his 59 goal contributions across the entire year is another MLS record. 

Other leagues have similarly benefited from their top stars finally reaching postseason success, such as what has happened globally with Major League Baseball the last two years, thanks in no small part to the arrival of Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers.

For MLS, the latest Messi exploits build on a foundation that has included the league posting its three best attendance totals during the past three years—coinciding with Messi’s tenure in Miami—and a bevy of merchandise sales records. The initial period of Messi in MLS, however, had been marked by unfilled competitive expectations and occasional injury and load-management issues as the superstar has worked through intense physical and schedule demands. 

Now, Messi is set to stay in MLS after recently signing a three-year contract extension running through 2028. That period will see the league shift to a fall-to-spring schedule, the sport’s international standard, while the opening of Inter Miami’s new stadium will be a key component of the early 2026 MLS slate.

“I think he’s the unicorn of unicorns,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said last month as Messi and Inter Miami began the playoff run. “There’s something about the way he’s wired. He’s thinking about the game like nobody else ever has.

“He has reset the trajectory for Major League Soccer, and we were already doing pretty well. I think having three more years is just going to be another gift,” Garber said.