It’s almost been two decades since Lionel Messi made his debut for Barcelona. He has played almost constantly for this long time. Now that he’s joined the MLS, as per the season schedule, he will have a lot of free time on his hands. The MLS season ends before the winter festivities begin. Additionally, Inter Miami failed to qualify for the play-offs. Hence, the break will be longer. Other than the Ballon d’Or ceremony and pre-season friendlies, Messi will finally enjoy the festive season with his family.
Lionel Messi started his journey almost two decades ago in 2003. The Argentine has been blessed in the form of suffering very few injuries throughout his career. This means that he has clocked in more time on the field than a lot of other players. He has played 899 competitive matches at the club level. Including the friendly fixtures he’s been a part of, that number increases exponentially. He has also played 201 matches representing Argentina. This amounts to 55 matches per year or over a match per week.
The European season begins in August and ends in June next year. Whereas, the MLS almost follows the calendar, starting around February and ending around November. Messi started his season with PSG last year and played 41 games with them. He then joined Inter Miami in July and started playing at the end of the month. He played on a continuous basis at a 3-4 day gap. He played a total of 14 matches with them. He also played 14 games in the World Cup and 8 more games following that.
Before the season and year ends, Messi still has a few more matches to play. Inter Miami will travel to China for 2 friendlies. Their first match will be against Qingdao Hainiu on 5th November and Chengdu Rongcheng on 8th November. There will be a few more friendlies Miami will play before their season starts next year in February. Miami are trying to arrange a few more friendlies with big clubs using the allure of Lionel Messi. It’s not yet confirmed, but they could play Messi’s childhood club, Newell’s Old Boys.
However, Messi will take on Newell’s Old Boys next year in the pre-season friendlies. Before that, he will be attending the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony on 30th October. After winning the World Cup and achieving extraordinary feats, Messi is the favourite to win the award. Also, considering Messi left Europe to move to Inter Miami, it’s uncertain whether he will go back to Europe at a later stage of not. If he decides to stay and retire from football here, then this Ballon d’Or could be his last accolade in Europe.
There have been no news of Messi moving to anywhere on loan during this long break. Hence, following the Ballon d’Or ceremony, he will get a long vacation. Talking to a reporter, Messi said, “It’ll be the first time in a while that I spend a lot of days here in December during the holidays in peace with my people and in January I’ll be back, I’ll do a preseason starting from zero and prepare myself the best I can, as always.”
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