Football superstar Lionel Messi is to join David Beckham’s club Inter Miami.
The 35-year-old, who led Argentina to World Cup victory last December, told Spanish media he is heading to America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) league after his contract expires with Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month.
Messi had reportedly been offered €400m (£344m) a year to join Saudi club Al Hilal and was also linked with a move to his former club Barcelona.
Inter Miami offered Messi $54m (£43m) per year for four years, it was reported.
The offer is also thought to include complex sponsorship deals with brands like Apple and Adidas to help pay him top dollar.
Messi had been strongly linked to Al Hilal, to join a Saudi league which already features Cristiano Ronaldo and now Karim Benzema.
But the Argentina forward confirmed in a joint interview with Spanish publications Mundo Deportivo and Sport that he was set to head to Florida.
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“I made the decision that I am going to go to Miami,” Messi said.
“I still haven’t closed it 100%. I’m missing some things, but we decided to continue on the path.”
Last week, Phil Neville was sacked as manager of Inter Miami, who are co-owned by his former Manchester United and England teammate Beckham.
The Florida side are currently bottom of the 15-team Eastern Conference, with just five wins from 16 matches.
Messi had also been linked with a return to Barca, but confirmed when that was not set to happen, he chose a new challenge in the US.
“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.”
Apple TV+ announced this week that it secured the rights to a four-part documentary about Messi’s career. The company is also in the first year of a TV rights deal with MLS.
