If the last football you properly watched was Messi lifting the World Cup in Qatar, you've missed a lot. Not just transfer gossip and managerial merry-go-rounds — the actual shape of the game has shifted in ways nobody predicted.
Let's start with the man himself. Messi joined Inter Miami in the summer of 2023, and rather than winding down, he's been running a victory lap. Ninety goals in 104 appearances. Three trophies — the Leagues Cup, the Supporters' Shield, and the MLS Cup in 2025. Oh, and an eighth Ballon d'Or, because of course. Miami's odds of winning any given MLS match now look entirely different when he's fit and starting.
The Mbappé Saga and PSG's Unlikely Redemption
The transfer that dominated 2024 was Kylian Mbappé finally completing his long-telegraphed move to Real Madrid. 86 goals in 103 games — the output has been there. The trophies haven't. No major silverware across two seasons, and the Bernabéu faithful haven't fully warmed to him yet.
The irony is brutal: PSG, the club he left, won the Champions League last season after stripping back the Galáctico experiment and building something coherent around young, hungry talent. Now they're in Saturday's Champions League final against Arsenal, hunting back-to-back European titles. The club spent years chasing that trophy with Neymar, Messi and Mbappé on the books. They won it without any of them.
Arsenal, for their part, have finally ended a 22-year Premier League drought under Mikel Arteta this season — which only makes their Champions League final appearance feel like confirmation that something real is being built in north London.
New Stars, Old Legends, and a Few Clubs That Hit Rock Bottom
The next generation has a name: Lamine Yamal. The Barcelona winger was 15 when he made his debut in April 2023. He's 18 now, has three La Liga titles and a European Championship with Spain already on his CV, and finished second in the 2025 Ballon d'Or race. He's currently in a race to be fit for Spain's World Cup opener after a hamstring injury in April — which matters both for Spain's tournament outlook and for anyone considering their outright price.
Harry Kane, meanwhile, has finally shed the nearly-man tag. Thirteen trophy-less years at Tottenham ended when he moved to Bayern Munich in 2023. Since then: 146 goals in 147 games, two Bundesliga titles, a German Cup, a German Supercup, and 58 goals already this season. At 32, he's arguably the best striker on the planet and a legitimate 2026 Ballon d'Or contender.
Tottenham, stripped of their greatest ever goalscorer, have not thrived. They did win the 2024-25 Europa League — their first trophy in 17 years — but managed to finish 17th in the Premier League in the same campaign. They've repeated that 17th-place finish this season, flirting with relegation. Manchester United, their opponents in that Europa League final, finished 15th — their lowest-ever Premier League position. New manager Michael Carrick has since steered them to third this season, which passes for a resurrection under the circumstances.
- Cristiano Ronaldo, now 41, finally won a trophy with Al Nassr — the Saudi league title — after his last major honour came with Juventus in 2021. He enters the World Cup with 973 career goals, chasing 1,000.
- Neymar has played just 63 games since Qatar 2022, battered by injury and a dramatic loss of form. He's back at Santos and reportedly in Brazil's World Cup squad under Carlo Ancelotti, but arrives at the tournament already managing a fresh fitness concern.
- Rodri won the 2024 Ballon d'Or after anchoring Manchester City's Premier League title win and Spain's Euro 2024 triumph. PSG's Ousmane Dembélé took the 2025 award on the back of a Treble-winning season.
- Bayer Leverkusen won the 2023-24 Bundesliga without losing a single match, ending Bayern's run of 11 straight titles. Manager Xabi Alonso's side also won the German Cup that year.
- Manchester City won the 2023 Champions League, beating Inter Milan in Istanbul, becoming the first English club to win the Treble since United in 1999.
- England's women won back-to-back European Championships, in 2022 and 2025, both under Sarina Wiegman. The men have now gone 60 years without a trophy.
Barcelona remain La Liga's dominant force, winning back-to-back titles, though their debt — which once cleared €1 billion — hasn't disappeared. A return to a renovated Camp Nou, eventually expanding to 105,000 seats, is supposed to help. Eventually.
The 2026 World Cup arrives with Ancelotti managing Brazil, Thomas Tuchel taking England, Julian Nagelsmann leading Germany, and Mauricio Pochettino in charge of hosts USA. The coaching quality across the tournament is as high as it's been in years. Ronaldo is chasing history. Yamal is chasing fitness. And Messi, somehow still going, gets one final shot at a second World Cup winner's medal.
Four years of football, and the sport delivered exactly what it always does: the unexpected.
