Inter Miami manager Phil Neville has confirmed the Major League Soccer club are eyeing up a move for Paris Saint-Germain star Lionel Messi and the forward's former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets.
Argentina star Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG when he joined from Barcelona in 2021. The higher-ups at the French club have made clear their preference for the World Cup winner to stay at the Parc des Princes, but he has yet to commit his future to the club.
Busquets, who has spent his entire playing career at Barcelona, is out of contract at Camp Nou at the end of the summer. Neville's team have space in their squad for high-earners after the retirement of Gonzalo Higuain.
“I’m not going to deny [it and say] there isn’t truth in the speculation that we’re interested in Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets,” Neville told The Times. "Since I joined Miami, I think we’ve been linked with every single top player in world football.
"From Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves, Robert Lewandowski, Willian, Cesc Fabregas, Luis Suarez... all of them, you can rattle off. We’re always going to be linked with the best players in the world.
"We had Gonzalo Higuain and Blaise Matuidi. Now we’ve got the opportunity to bring in some new designated players [who fall outside the league’s salary cap] following their retirements.”
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Messi scored just 11 goals in all competitions in his first PSG season but has already surpassed that tally with 16 this term. He also scored seven times at the World Cup, including twice in the final, as Argentina beat France and lifted the trophy for the first time in his career.
A move back to his homeland could yet be on the cards, as could an extended stay in Paris. Sergio Aguero, who played with Messi at the 2018 World Cup, suggested his compatriot was "seriously considering" a switch to Newell's Old Boys in his home town of Rosario.
Back in November, Messi opened up about his initial struggles settling in Paris. However, he also spoke of how the situation has changed as he has spent more time in his new surroundings after spending most of his life in Catalunya.
"I like Paris a lot more now, I have discovered the city and I find it magnificent," the veteran said, per Le Parisien. "In the first year, there was a huge change. Things happened very suddenly, it was not my objective to leave Barcelona, and everything about it was very abrupt.
"After this long period and the difficult times, I am happy to live where I live, and my family and I are enjoying Paris. It was hard at the start, we had stayed all our lives in the same place, I had never moved and I did not know what it was like to leave.
"We did not expect this, it happened very quickly, and we had to leave Barcelona overnight. We found ourselves in a new environment. We had our life in Barcelona, our friends, our habits, and we found ourselves in a different place, with another language, another football, another climate, I suffered a lot from that. It was hard. But, today, I enjoy everything, including football."
