MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Noah Allen stood uncomfortably behind a microphone, his hands fidgety, his evening “bittersweet.” He and Inter Miami had just advanced to the Club World Cup knockout stage. But they’d blown a two-goal lead to Palmeiras here at Hard Rock Stadium, and so, rather than advance as Group A winners, they are staring down a Round of 16 clash with Paris Saint-Germain. Reporters peppered Allen, a 21-year-old homegrown defender, about the conflicting emotions, and about the upcoming matchup. One asked bluntly: “Would you rather play against Botafogo,” the would-be opponent if Inter Miami had won its group, “instead of PSG?”
“I mean… you know… it’s difficult,” Allen began, presumably searching for a clichéd escape.
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But then he cracked: “Yes, probably.”
The rest of the soccer world, though, is salivating at Sunday’s showdown. It will be the first-ever official match between Lionel Messi and one of his former clubs. And it is not just any former club; it’s the one at which Messi was unhappy, the one with which his divorce was messy, the one whose fans turned on him as he faltered in 2023 and plotted an exit.
And the one who, in Messi’s absence, became the champion of Europe.
With Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, PSG was soccer’s ultimate superteam. With all of them gone, fractured by Champions League failure after Champions League failure, Luis Enrique — one of Messi’s former coaches at Barcelona — transformed a group of younger, less heralded stars into a superteam.
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“It’s a brutal, incredible team,” Inter Miami’s Tadeo Allende said Monday.
It’s a “brilliant team,” Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said.
Jordi Alba, Messi’s friend and longtime teammate, repeatedly called PSG “the best team in the world” — on Sunday, off-hand, and again on Monday after learning he’d face the Parisian club.
“Right now,” Alba said, “they’re playing the best soccer in Europe … and obviously, it will be very complicated.”
Lionel Messi left Paris in the past. But in Atlanta on Sunday, the past comes calling as Inter Miami will face PSG in the Club World Cup’s Round of 16. (Getty Images)
(Eurasia Sport Images via Getty Images)
He was talking about the on-field challenge of facing PSG, a team that ripped apart Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final just a few weeks ago. But “complicated,” muy complicado, would apply to off-field narratives as well. Although Messi has said he has “nothing against” PSG, he has admitted on several occasions that he “didn’t enjoy” his two years at the club. In fact, he never wanted to leave Barcelona for Paris in the first place.
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When Barca’s financial troubles forced him to — and when PSG became the only megaclub willing to accommodate him — it was “a last-minute decision,” Messi later explained. “I had to adapt to something new after living [in Barcelona] my entire [adult] life. It was difficult, both on the sporting side and living in a new city.”
He has said he “wasn’t happy day to day,” neither at training nor at his temporary Paris home. “Personally, I struggled with the change,” he said in 2023, and “it really affected me personally.”
He won a couple French Ligue 1 titles. But after a second early Champions League exit, fans began to boo and whistle. After Messi skipped training for a trip to Saudi Arabia, to fulfill personal sponsorship obligations, PSG suspended him, and supporters soon gathered outside club headquarters to protest a variety of things, with Messi at the center of the storm. Some chanted: “Messi, son of a b****!” Many made it clear they wanted him to get lost.
And that’s what Messi did. He sought out, and found, a slower, more comfortable life in South Florida. He signed with Inter Miami and began shredding MLS.
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As for PSG, he subsequently acknowledged that “there was a rift with a big part of the Paris fans,” which “was not my intention.” He added in a 2023 interview: “I’ll remember all the people who respected me, as I always respected everyone since I arrived. And, that’s all.”
Now, two years later, he will meet some of those same people on a Club World Cup pitch in Atlanta (Sunday, 12 p.m. ET, DAZN/TUDN). He will do so at age 38, with his legs aging and his greatness gradually waning. He’ll do so with a team that everyone assumes is overmatched, against a coach who led him to a famous 2015 treble at Barca and remains, in Alba’s words, “the best coach in the world.”
And they will probably lose. But, Alba asked, “why not dream?”
“It’s 90 minutes,” Alba said. Over 90 minutes, “any team can beat you. And we’re going to fight.”
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Mascherano, who also played under Enrique at Barca and now will coach against him, echoed that sentiment.
“We’re going to play Sunday against a great team. Probably they are better than us,” he said. “But in football, you never know.”
“If there’s one thing that makes this sport the most beautiful of all, it’s this,” Mascherano continued. “It often gives a team that’s inferior the opportunity to compete, and even win.”
They know they are that team. They know that PSG is stocked with “elite players who, even with the tiniest mistake, can beat you,” Miami defender Maxi Falcon said. They know it will be “difficult,” multiple players said.
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But, Mascherano concluded: “We have to play, we’ll try our best, and we’ll see what happens. Maybe it’s our day — you never know.”
Allen, although he’d have “probably” preferred Botafogo, assured everyone: “We’re gonna go in believing, excited to play quality like that. … We’re excited for the challenge. We know that, win or lose, we’re gonna go into the next round with full belief.”
