Messi visits Camp Nou, trains with Argentina, heads to Angola for friendly
Lionel Messi spent this week in Spain, reminiscing about his glory days at FC Barcelona and training with Argentina’s national team, which is scheduled to travel to Angola on Thursday for a Friday friendly match against the Angolan national team.
According to news reports from Africa, the Angolan Football Federation spent $12.7 million to cover Argentina’s appearance fee and organize the match at the 11 de Novembro National Stadium in Luanda. The event is part of a celebration of the country’s 50 years of independence from Portugal.
The high fee reportedly was contingent on Messi being a featured player, which helped sell out the 48,000-seat venue.
Defending World Cup champion Argentina has already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, so the federation is using the FIFA international window as a training camp and initially planned two friendlies against Angola and India, but the India plans fell through.
Messi is one of seven Inter Miami players on national team duty during the FIFA break, which falls smack in the middle of the MLS playoffs.
Inter Miami advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a Round One series-clinching 4-0 win over Nashville last Saturday. Messi scored two goals and had an assist in that game.
Miami will be on the road at FC Cincinnati on Nov. 23 for the single-elimination conference semifinal match.
Messi and Rodrigo De Paul, who are teammates with Inter Miami and Argentina, flew to Spain on Sunday and made an impromptu visit to FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium, which is under renovation.
Messi posted photos of the evening visit to his 509 million Instagram followers with a sentimental message that went viral:
“Last night, I returned to a place that I miss with all my heart. A place where I was immensely happy, where you made me feel a thousand times like the happiest person in the world. I hope that one day I can return, and not just to say goodbye as a player, as I never got to do.”
Messi spent more than 20 years in Barcelona, 17 of those with the first team, scoring 672 goals and winning 34 trophies, including 10 LaLiga titles and four Champions League trophies.
He left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and joined Inter Miami in 2023. He recently signed a contract extension to remain with Inter Miami until the end of the 2028 MLS season
Messi also was nostalgic about his Barcelona days in an interview published this week in Diario Sport, a Spanish daily sports newspaper based in Barcelona.
“We miss Barcelona so much,” he said. “My wife and the kids are always talking about Barcelona, about the idea of living there again. We have our house there, everything, so that’s what we want.”
Asked about the adulation he feels from Barca fans, Messi said: “It’s spectacular. Everything I hear about Barcelona, about the people, about a time like that we lived through, always fills me with a bit of nostalgia. And a lot of emotion.”
He lamented that his departure from Barcelona was not as he had envisioned.
“I was left with a strange feeling after leaving, because of how everything happened, because I ended up playing my last years without fans, because of the pandemic. After spending my whole life there, I didn’t leave the way I imagined, the way I dreamed.
“I imagined playing my entire career in Europe, in Barcelona, and then, yes, coming here like I did, because that was my plan, what I wanted. And the farewell was a bit strange too, because of the situation, because of everything. But I think the fans’ affection will always be there, because of everything we’ve been through.”
As for his life in South Florida, Messi repeated what he told a downtown Miami audience last week at the American Business Forum.
“We’re enjoying our daily life, it’s a very similar life to what I had in [Barcelona suburb] Castelldefels, with the club nearby, the kids’ school very close too, everything within easy reach, convenient,” Messi said. “We live away from the city, which is beautiful, but the traffic is terrible.”
He also expressed surprise that Barcelona and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba announced his retirement last month after signing a two-year contract extension earlier in the summer.
“With Busi [Sergio Busquets], we’d been talking about it more, and he’d already been analyzing it and talking about it, but with Jordi, it was out of the blue; we weren’t expecting it,” Messi said.
“He grabbed us one day in the locker room and told us he was going to announce it, that he was retiring without having spoken about it or discussed it beforehand. It was completely unexpected for us, and it was even more surprising. It’s a shame because beyond what we enjoyed on the court, we’re also friends. We started this challenge of coming to Miami together from the beginning.
“There’s less and less time left…we’re from the same generation, we’ve done our whole careers together, and being able to share the last few years together has been really great.”
Finally, Messi addressed his plans regarding the 2026 World Cup, which is being hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“It’s special to play with the national team, especially considering what a World Cup means, and after having won it; but, I don’t want to be a burden,” he said.
“I want to feel good physically, to be sure that I can help and contribute to the squad. We’ll have a preseason, few matches leading up to the World Cup, and we’ll see day by day if I really feel physically fit enough to be where I’d like to be and be able to participate. I’m excited, but taking it one day at a time.”