Lionel Messi: Almost all over – or back into the light? OLIVER HOLT watches the GOAT and speaks to those around him as World Cup doubts emerge

There have been occasions, particularly when Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in their opening game at the 2022 World Cup, where it has felt as if the enchanted career of Lionel Messi was coming to an end.

It felt then that everyone reaches a full stop and that maybe it was time to accept that the greatest footballer we have ever seen was bowing to the ravages of time and that there would be no more of those moments of genius that lift the soul.

And then there are wonderful nights like Wednesday night at Citi Field, a baseball stadium next to the Flushing Meadow tennis complex in New York, when it feels as if Messi has made time stand still and that he might play forever.

Messi followed up that loss to Saudi Arabia in Qatar by producing a series of spellbinding performances that helped Argentina lift the World Cup at the Lusail Stadium a few weeks later.

And when Messi’s Inter Miami side took on New York City at Citi Field, we were given the clearest indication yet that Messi’s play is still at the level that will allow him not just to compete in next summer’s World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada but to make Argentina among the favourites to win it again.

He scored two breathtaking goals in Miami’s 4-0 demolition of the home side. His first made it feel as if we had been taken back to the late 2000s, when Messi and Sergio Busquets graced Pep Guardiola’s sparkling Barcelona side.

He scored a typically Messi goal with a wonderful dink over the goalkeeper 

Busquets patrolled midfield again at Citi Field and, 16 minutes from time, with Miami already 1-0 up, he played a brilliant pass that split the New York defence and set Messi scurrying away down the inside left channel.

Messi got to the pass in front of the last defender, drew goalkeeper Tim Freese and then lifted the ball delicately over him into the net. The roar of exultation that rent the air made it obvious that this was no ordinary home game.

Twelve minutes later, Messi did it again. He got the ball with his back to goal, deep in the New York half, turned and ran at his defender. Messi may be 38 but he dropped his shoulder and went past that defender as if he were not there before rifling a right-foot shot across Freese and into the bottom corner.

He has helped the league reach a stage where it is rivalling Ligue 1 in France for the number of players it may send to the World Cup and is edging closer to establishing itself on a level with a leading European league.

Because of Messi, Miami has become the league’s biggest draw, its flag-bearer franchise, and the team’s victory in New York confirmed that it has secured a place in the end of season play-offs.

Another reason for the exuberance of MLS officials is that there is an expectation that in the next few days, Messi will announce that he has agreed a new deal with Miami that may allow him to play past 40.

That would give him the platform to appear at next summer’s World Cup and it would also mean he would be part of Beckham’s franchise when it opens its long-awaited new stadium at the start of next season, a development that will be another landmark for the league.

All the suggestions and all the evidence are that Messi has been rejuvenated by playing in MLS. He enjoys a more relaxed family lifestyle in Florida than he could ever hope to achieve in Barcelona or in Argentina.

Messi, pictured with wife Antonella Roccuzzo at a Coldplay concert in Florida, is relishing a more relaxed life in the US and it is extending his playing career

Messi is still amazing team-mates with his training intensity and looks in fantastic shape

Sources inside Inter Miami say they are astonished by the training ethic of Messi and Busquets in particular. Messi has created his own football family in Miami, with teammates like his old friends Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba and an Argentine coach, Javier Mascherano.

And he has become more and more embedded in the football culture here. His sons play in local youth leagues and his energy drink brand, Mas+, is the official hydration partner for youth arms of the MLS, MLS Go and MLS Next.

Those who wonder whether Messi would be able to perform at the highest level at a World Cup from a platform like the MLS forget that he dominated the last World Cup when he was becalmed as a player in his largely unhappy spell at PSG.

He is happier now than he was then and many feel he is just as well placed to shape Argentina’s attempt to defend their World Cup title as he was when he guided his country to that triumph in Qatar in 2022.

Mascherano emphasised the joy Messi is feeling in his game at the moment by pointing out one aspect of his play at Citi Field. Late in the game, after Messi had scored his first goal, Miami won a penalty when Rodrigo de Paul was sent sprawling in the box.

Messi is Miami’s regular penalty taker but he handed the ball to Suarez, just back from a six-match ban incurred for a spitting incident, and desperate to justify his inclusion. Suarez took the penalty and dispatched it.

Messi takes a selfie at the launch of his energy drink Mas+ and is embedded in the culture

Messi gave the penalty to Luis Suarez, dispatched by his friend and team-mate

‘Messi has done this many times throughout his career,’ Mascherano said after the match. 

‘Sometimes he pays attention to team-mates who haven’t scored but need a goal more than he does. Lionel tried to help in that way. He was showing the team spirit, to involve all the players in the game, and perhaps in this case, Luis needed to score. That’s why it’s great.’

When the Miami team coach pulled away from Citi Field in the darkness and pouring rain, an hour or so after the end of the game, groups of kids sprinted after it, shouting Messi’s name long after the coach had turned towards the freeway.

The greatest player we have ever known is not ready to fade into the darkness just yet. He is heading back into the light.