Why Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami Project Could Unravel in MLS Playoffs

Last year, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s round one playoff exit at the hands of Atlanta United was bad.

A repeat this week against Nashville SC would be much, much worse.

Yet that’s exactly the prospect Messi and the Herons are facing this Saturday night when Sam Surridge, Hany Mukhtar and the Coyotes come back to South Florida for Game 3 of their series.

It’s hard to forget how shocking it was when Miami, then the Eastern Conference top seed, lost games 2 and 3 of its 2024 series to eighth-seeded Atlanta.

A loss Saturday for third-seeded Miami against sixth-seeded Nashville would feel less jilting. And that’s an indictment on a Miami project that has appeared to regress while also -- by outward appearances, at least -- becoming increasingly influenced by Messi’s singular preferences.

This year, manager Javier Mascherano is Messi’s close friend and a former teammate with both FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team.

This year, sporting director Ángel Guillermo Hoyos is Messi’s longtime mentor from his time as a Barcelona academy coach.

This year, the club has featured as many players claiming Argentina as their primary nationality as the United States, according to fbref.com, with the Argentines earning exponentially more minutes.

And this year, the Herons don’t have a trophy of any sort so far. In 2023, Messi immediately helped Miami capture the Leagues Cup in his first seven games with the club. In 2024, they earned the Supporters’ Shield as the team with the best regular season record.

This won’t be Messi’s last chance at MLS glory. The 38-year-old just finalized a three-year contract extension before the opening match of the playoff series.

But if 2025 was the year where Miami began building more explicitly in Messi’s image, that trend appears almost certain to accelerate.

Two of the Herons’ other veteran stars -- Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba -- have announced they’re retiring after this season. The future of a third -- striker Luis Suarez -- remains uncertain. Their replacements are likely to be younger and more athletic, but with less dressing room clout of their own, with traits meant to compliment Messi’s still significant technical brilliance.

Done correctly, such a rebuild might be necessary to ensure a team that is capable of more competitive balance with Messi on the field. Even at their best, Miami have never looked invincible in 2025, only a very good team with some very obvious defensive flaws.

But based on the changes we’ve seen from 2024 to 2025, there’s little reason to be confident the right pieces will be attained. And there also doesn’t appear to be any exit ramp so long as Messi is the main man.

At least last year’s loss to Atlanta felt fluky, against an opponent that always seemed to have Miami’s number and a goalkeeper in Brad Guzan who always appeared 10 years younger when facing Messi.

Losing to a Nashville side whom the Herons previously had dominated would say a lot more about Miami than it does about the victors, and in particular about the tenuous dynamic between the club's pursuit of success and the preferences of its superstar player.