In his return to play on Sunday, Lionel Messi scored twice as Inter Miami defeated Philadelphia Union 3-1. The attacker was sidelined before to this game after suffering an ankle injury on July 14 during Argentina's Copa America final victory against Colombia. Since the former Barcelona star is already 37 years old, many supporters have been left wondering about his availability as Argentina prepares to defend their FIFA World Cup championship in 2026. Juan Roman Riquelme, a great from Argentina and Messi's former teammate, believes that the Inter Miami player will compete in the competition in 2026.

 

"Messi is reinventing himself," he remarked in a statement on the AZZ channel. You never know what powers he possesses. He needs to play in the upcoming World Cup, and I have no question about that. We'll all be cheering for him to participate. Although we don't chat much, I do tease him a lot. For this reason, I believe he will play. He's really skilled; this isn't typical. He continues by saying that he truly enjoys competing. Despite his great victories, he always aspires to more."

On Sunday, Philadelphia opened the scoring in the second minute via Mikael Uhre. Messi sparked his side's comeback with a brace. In the 26th-minute, Messi took a ball from Luis Suarez, ran past a defender and then hammered it inside the left post to make it 1-1. Then four minutes later, Messi collected a cross and scored past the goalie with a shot from 15 yards, to make it 2-1. In stoppage time of the second half, Messi found Suare, who made it 3-1. Speaking prior of the match, Messi remarked, "A little bit tired because of the heat and humidity of Miami but I wanted to return so much after such a long time away."