A journalist asked Lionel Messi whether his son Thiago was leaving Inter Miami for La Masia. Messi's answer: "No."
That's it. One word, no elaboration, question closed. When you're the greatest player in the history of the sport, you don't need to justify yourself to the press pack ahead of a League Cup match against Atletico San Luis.
Why the rumors had legs
The speculation wasn't completely without logic. Thiago, 13, already has a Barcelona chapter on his CV — he played at Barça Escola from 2016 to 2019 while his father was captain at Camp Nou. He followed Messi to PSG too, picking up experience in Paris before the family relocated to Miami in 2023. Now he's a midfielder for Inter Miami's youth setup, and this summer he won the MIC Football championship.
The parallel to his father's story is obvious and a little eerie. Lionel left Rosario for Barcelona at exactly the same age — 13 — and the rest is football history. So when Thiago starts collecting trophies at the same stage of life, the internet was always going to ask questions.
Messi has described Thiago as "more thoughtful, organized, and more middle-oriented" — which, for a holding or central midfielder, is a decent blueprint. He's not his father's clone, and by the sound of it, nobody in the Messi household is trying to make him one.
Meanwhile, Messi the father has his own wounds
The backdrop to all of this is that Messi senior is still processing a World Cup final defeat to Spain. In July, Argentina lost the final, and Messi addressed it directly on Instagram: "The pain is too big and it's gonna take a while to heal this wound." He noted that Argentina had reached two consecutive World Cup finals — a fact that deserves more credit than it typically gets in the immediate aftermath of a loss.
For now, Thiago stays in Miami. The La Masia pipeline remains closed — at least according to his dad.
