Lionel Messi predicted that the 2026 World Cup in North America next year will be on another level, as he searches to retain the title won with Argentina in Qatar last time.
This is likely to be Messi’s last World Cup of an illustrious career that has spanned 21 years. His first appearance on the global stage was all the way back in 2006, and 2026 will be a record-breaking sixth World Cup tournament—Cristiano Ronaldo is set to achieve the same feat with Portugal.
It is the first time the World Cup has been spread across three host nations—the United States, Canada and Mexico—and the biggest to date, with 48 teams to compete. America, in particular, is also soccer crazy now, in a way that it just wasn’t back when the World Cup last came around in 1994.
“I have very high expectations that the World Cup is going to be something extraordinary,” Messi said during his appearance this week at the America Business Forum in Miami.
Argentina are among a host of contenders, although Spain, France, England and Brazil are all considered stronger at this stage, seven months out. If La Albiceleste go all the way again, Messi and a few others would join a relatively small group of players to win it twice.
National soccer icon Daniel Passarella is the only Argentine player on that list, the sole survivor from the country’s 1978 roster that was also still there when they won again in 1986. Italy (1934, 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962) are the only teams to have successfully repeated at the World Cup.
“When we won the World Cup, I had the same feeling as when my children were born,” Messi fondly recalled of 2022, as Argentina beat France in an all-time great final. “It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain, so special and immense that anything I say about it will always fall short.”
Key to the City of Miami
After speaking, Messi was then presented with a special gift from Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas and mayor Francis Suarez: the key to the city.
“I want to share and say something about our Inter Miami captain, our No. 10. This is a small gift from this city, which has captured the hearts of all of us,” Mas said. “This is a welcome not only for you but also for wife Antonela and your beautiful family, so that you can always feel at home here.”
In response, Messi said that he felt “honored” and “very grateful” for such recognition of his local impact, which has come over a relatively short period of time.
He went on to reflect on what it was previously like moving his family and whole life from Barcelona to Paris, having joined PSG in 2021. Despite the wrench of leaving the place he’d called home for 20 years, since the age of 13, settling in the French capital wasn’t the problem.
Never give Lionel Messi this much space. pic.twitter.com/mpWqnjTeFY
— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) September 25, 2025
“The truth is, we settled in well, the kids too, in their daily lives, just like my wife,” Messi explained. “But, as I’ve said several times, I wasn’t having a good time in terms of football and day-to-day life. I wasn’t enjoying myself for a lot of reasons, partly because everything was new to me, very different from what I was used to.”
Messi opted against the optional third year of his PSG contract and heading to Inter Miami and experience Major League Soccer was a “family decision.”
Hinting that joining PSG wasn’t really what he wanted or much of a choice—it was Barcelona’s financial mismanagement, rather than any personal desire to, that had forced him to leave Camp Nou—he gushed: “Choosing where you want to be and being able to do it makes things so much easier.
“After I arrived in Miami, it was spectacular. Living in this city for the first time is incredible. And then there’s the way everyone has been since day one. The first day was amazing, and today is just another example of the welcome I feel.”
READ THE LATEST INTER MIAMI NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Extraordinary’—Lionel Messi’s Bold 2026 World Cup Prediction.
