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Lionel Messi's Barcelona boys gear up for one last playoff push

By Alyssa Clang | Last updated Oct 24, 2025 7:03 PM ET

After months of speculation, it's official: Lionel Messi is staying in Major League Soccer.

The Argentine signed a multiyear contract extension with Inter Miami that will keep him in the United States until the end of the 2028 season. He'll be 41 then, older than the league's current oldest outfield player, but he's Messi. He's ageless. He's still contributing MVP-caliber numbers in the twilight of his career, and another few years are unlikely to change that.

But while Messi is staying in Miami, his former Barcelona buddies — midfielder Sergio Busquets and defender Jordi Alba — are not. Both are set to hang up their cleats for good at the end of the 2025 season. Busquets's retirement was expected; Alba's was not, and it came just months after he signed his own multiyear contract extension with Miami.

All the chaos and crossed wires set the stage for a weighty postseason. The Barcelona boys of Messi, Busquets and Alba, plus Luis Suarez — a man functionally playing on one knee but still finding time to score goals and make enemies — are suiting up for one last ride together.

They have the opportunity to win one last trophy, and it's a trophy that's eluded them since their arrival in the United States: the MLS Cup.

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A fated foe

Messi has always taken great joy out of helping his close friends succeed; just look at his emotion when he helped Angel di Maria close out his Argentina career with a Copa America victory in 2024. But if Messi is going to help Busquets and Alba close out their careers on a high note, he's going to have to take down a rather familiar foe in the first round: Nashville SC.

When Messi joined Miami in 2023, he made his debut in the Leagues Cup tournament against Mexico's Cruz Azul. Miami went on to win that tournament in dramatic fashion...and it won it by taking down none other than Nashville. The game was a tense affair decided by penalties; Messi, Busquets and Alba all scored theirs to tip the match in Miami's favor.

"We have unfinished business," Nashville striker Hany Mukhtar said, per Ben Wright of the league's official website. "Concacaf, the Leagues Cup final, you know? There’s a lot of bitter tastes for us, and it's time to turn the pages.”

A dismal first-round record

But for all its talent and trophies, Miami has a remarkably poor record in the MLS playoffs. It's made them just three times and crashed out in the opening round in all of them. Last year, Miami entered the playoffs as the top seed but still couldn't advance past the opening series. Wild-card entrant Atlanta United pressed, bullied and annoyed Miami and came out of the series with all the spoils.

"I think we remember what happened last year, and we're going to try to avoid that in every way possible,” Miami defender Noah Allen said .

Miami coach Javier Mascherano agreed, noting that his team has the "responsibility" to win its first-round series after crashing out in 2024. It was the little mistakes that undid Miami against Atlanta back then; those are precisely what Mascherano's men must avoid if they hope to get past Nashville.

If they can, then Messi might be able to give Busquets and Alba the sterling sendoff they deserve. It'd be a fitting end to a wild ride for the Barcelona boys — and a fitting start to Messi's post-Fab Four future in MLS.

Miami will kick off its MLS Playoffs best-of-three first-round series against Nashville on Friday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. ET.

Alyssa Clang

Alyssa is a Boston-born Californian with a passion for global sport. She can yell about misplaced soccer passes in five languages and rattle off the turns of Silverstone in her sleep. You can find her dormant Twitter account at @alyssaclang, but honestly, you’re probably better off finding her here

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