I am going to Miami – Lionel Messi heading for MLS after Paris St Germain exit

Lionel Messi has announced he is to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami. The 35-year-old Argentina forward had been strongly linked with a move to Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, to join a league which already features Cristiano Ronaldo and now Karim Benzema. However, with Messi’s two-year contract at Paris St Germain coming to an end this month, the World Cup winner confirmed in a joint interview with Spanish publications Mundo Deportivo and Sport he was set to head to the United States. “I made the decision that I am going to go to Miami,” Messi said. “I still haven’t closed it one hundred per cent. I’m missing some things, but we decided to continue on the path.” MLS franchise Miami are co-owned by former England captain David Beckham. The Florida side recently sacked Beckham’s former Manchester United and England team-mate Phil Neville as coach and are currently bottom of the 15-team Eastern Conference, but remain a fiercely ambitious club. Messi had also been linked with a move back to his former club Barcelona, but confirmed when that was not set to go through, he opted for a fresh challenge in the USA. “If the Barcelona thing didn’t work out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight and think more in my family,” he said. “I really wanted, I was very excited to be able to return (to Barcelona), but after having experienced what I experienced and the exit I had, I did not want to be in the same situation again – waiting to see what was going to happen. “I heard that they had to sell players or lower players’ salaries and the truth is that I didn’t want to go through that, nor take charge of obtaining something that had to do with all that.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Travis Head says attention on star man Steve Smith helped him excel at Lord’s World Snooker chairman Steve Dawson: We will continue to stamp out corruption Most difficult year of my life – Alexander Zverev makes French Open semis again