Lionel Messi speaks about the “fear” of retirement and says Inter Miami will be his last club

Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has confirmed that he believes his time at the MLS side will be his final stint in club Football before retirement.

Speaking with SportsCenter, the World Cup winner said “yes, right now, I believe Inter Miami will be my final club”.

“I think the world is not ready for you to leave football”, said the interviewer, to which Messi replied, “me neither”.

Messi admits to the ‘fear’ of retiring

“All of my life I’ve done this, played Games and enjoyed training. There’s always that fear that it ends, it’s always there. It was tough to leave Europe to come here; the fact I won the World Cup helped me a lot to see things in a different way and I don’t think about”, he added.

Messi admitted that now, at the latter stage of his career, he simply tries “to enjoy myself”, while adding that that’s why I enjoy things more, I know there’s always less time. I have a good time at the club where I’m lucky enough to be with my friends and teaMMAtes, the same goes for the national team, I have a lot of friends there. I enjoy the small details, the things that I know that when I don’t play anymore, I’ll miss”.

When asked whether his last club would be Inter Miami, Messi hesitated before responding “yes, I think so. Right now I think it will be my last club, yes.” While this may send fans across the world into panic mode, Messi did not reveal when exactly he would retire from the game that he has graced for so long.

Right now, Messi’s focus is on Argentina in their quest to retain the Copa América, which begins on Thursday 20 June at Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta, when his side take on Jesse Marsch’s Canada. Lionel Scaloni’s side, along with their North American rivals, are in Group A alongside Chile and Peru.