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Who says you can’t go home: Messi set for PSG reunion as Inter Miami enter new territory
Perhaps it was always going to be this way. The world's most famous player, lining up against his former club, with a place in the history books at stake.
Yet this is a variation of the dream - a funhouse-mirror interpretation, warped from its ideal form and recast with strange angles as something altogether more intriguing.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup has staked plenty upon the presence of its big-name superstars, players arguably bigger than the teams they represent.
Few loom larger than Lionel Messi. The Argentina forward's presence at this tournament, secured by a host-nation place for Inter Miami, has been a key USP for the event.
But perhaps, in part, it is because with its commitment to a fair shake across the board, FIFA has been unable to bring the cream of the crop across from Europe to join him.
Of the big five leagues that dominate UEFA, only two domestic champions from the 2024-25 campaign made the dozen-strong list of teams flying the flag in the United States.
Rules dictate that, except in the case of UEFA Champions League success, only two teams per nation can be allowed to contest at the revamped competition in North America.
That means there is no Liverpool, no Napoli allowed to dine at the high table of this all-encompassing global football jamboree - and most tellingly, no Barcelona.
Whether the Blaugrana, revived and revitalised under Hansi Flick with La Liga, the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España glory this term, deserve to be there is another matter.
The absence of one of Spain's biggest clubs, of one of Europe's most storied names - of a three-time FIFA Club World Cup winner themselves - certainly robs the event of narrative fascination though
Barcelona was never the house that Messi built, but it was the one that was catapulted to glory days by his excellence and a gripping rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
Arguably free at last from the long shadow he left over Camp Nou, the chance to pit them together likely one last time - the aging generalissimo against the new breed that idolises him - would have been legendary.
Instead however, fate has brought Messi back to another home instead - that of Paris Saint-Germain, after Miami were paired up against them in Atlanta for the last-16.
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There is a long history between the player and the French heavyweights. Against no club outside of Spain has the veteran forward played more in his career, with 10 meetings.
Played out across the span of multiple UCL campaigns, he came to become one of their most frustrated adversaries - and then, in a shock 2021 move, one of their biggest stars.
A financial crisis at Camp Nou and the looming need to preserve match fitness before the following year's FIFA World Cup drew the star north to the Parc des Princes for a two-year stay.
In that time, he furthered his reputation as a modern-day great, but less for his exploits at club level. Despite two Ligue 1 titles, he could not help them and fellow superstars to the Champions League title.
Still, Messi is likely to remain eternally grateful to them for his stay, if only as a place to hone his international pedigree further - he was a PSG player when he finally lifted the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
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But in the years since he departed France for Florida, there has been a sea change in Paris. No longer is the club a sleeping giant, bloated by superstar wages and continental incontinence.
Now, under Luis Enrique - another old Barcelona ally for Messi to meet again - the team are finally champions of Europe, and widely tipped to go all the way here in the States.
They are not the only ones making history however. Miami might not have made the MLS Cup theirs last term, and they may not have recaptured that blistering form this year too.
Guided by their flagship star however, the Herons have become the first team from the USA in FIFA Club World Cup history to progress beyond their first tournament stage.
Irrespective of what unfolds at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Messi has once again put his team into the history books.
Now, Georgia will be on their mind as he returns to an old home - and looks to spring one of the great surprises of his post-World Cup career on the biggest stage of all.
Watch all 63 matches of the 2025 Club World Cup live on DAZN. More information and to sign up for a free account here.
