Lionel Messi returned to a football pitch on Wednesday night for the first time since burying his father, coming off the bench for Inter Miami in a Leagues Cup group game against Club León that ended in a 3-2 defeat and eliminated the Herons from the tournament.
Messi had missed Miami's previous fixture, a loss to CF Monterrey, after flying to Rosario following the death of his father and long-time agent, Jorge Messi, who passed away on August 7 at the age of 68 after a long illness at a clinic in the Argentine city. He made a rapid turnaround back to Florida, arriving on Wednesday morning to be available for the León match.
He was named among the substitutes and entered at the start of the second half in place of Daniel Pinter, who had put Miami ahead in the 42nd minute. Local broadcasters and reporters at Chase Stadium described the crowd erupting into chants of "Messi, Messi, Messi" as he walked onto the pitch, though the emotional reception could not turn the result.
León hit back three minutes into the second half through Daniel Arcila, before Yannick Bright restored Miami's lead in the 53rd minute. Juan Domínguez leveled it again for the Mexican side in the 61st, and Arcila completed his brace with the winner in the 83rd minute — a goal initially flagged offside before being confirmed by VAR.
The defeat left Inter Miami with just three points from three group games — a 4-2 win over Atlético San Luis, the loss to Monterrey and Wednesday's collapse against León — and no path into the knockout rounds. It is, by several American outlets' accounts, the club's worst Leagues Cup showing since Messi's arrival in 2023, a year after Miami reached the final of the same competition.
Interim head coach Guillermo Hoyos, who moved over from his sporting director role after Javier Mascherano's abrupt departure in April, said Jorge Messi's death had weighed heavily on the squad through a difficult week, according to ONE's report from Florida.
Messi himself still managed five shots, three of them on target, along with two completed dribbles and four key passes in his 45 minutes on the pitch — an active cameo that suggested he was determined to play through the grief rather than sit the tournament out entirely.
The same night in the Leagues Cup brought a smaller Israeli footnote: FC Dallas, featuring Israeli midfielder Ran Binyamin, were also eliminated after a 3-1 loss away to Toluca in Mexico. Binyamin, signed from Hapoel Tel Aviv earlier this year, came on as a second-half substitute and picked up a yellow card as Dallas' own group-stage campaign ended in Estadio Nemesio Díez.
Inter Miami now turn their attention back to MLS, where they are due to face Nashville SC this weekend, with Messi expected to remain part of the group as the club tries to salvage its domestic season after an early Leagues Cup exit.
