Lionel Messi and Inter Miami agree to contract extension through 2028 season

Lionel Messi has finally agreed to a new contract with Inter Miami, a deal that required several months to complete and ensures that the sport’s biggest icon will be with the Major League Soccer club for its planned move into a new stadium next year

Lionel Messi has finally agreed to a new contract with Inter Miami, a deal that required several months to complete and ensures that the sport’s biggest icon will be with the Major League Soccer club for its planned move into a new stadium next year.

The deal was announced Thursday, one day before Inter Miami’s playoff opener against Nashville. Messi’s team — the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference — will play host to Game 1 of that best-of-three series on Friday night.

The team announced the move in a social media post, one showing Messi signing the contract inside the new stadium that remains under construction. “HE’S HOME,” the team said in the post.

“It makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality — playing in this stadium, at Miami Freedom Park,” Messi said in remarks distributed by the club. “Since I arrived in Miami, I’ve been very happy, so I’m truly glad to keep going here.”

Messi spoke exclusively with NBC News’ Tom Llamas in a wide-ranging and rare interview airing Monday, October 27 on NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.