Lionel Messi, Inter Miami win 2025 MLS Cup

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi’s legacy was long secured when he came to Inter Miami and joined Major League Soccer.

He’d won a World Cup, won dozens of trophies, was generally considered the greatest player in the sport’s history.

He didn’t need an MLS Cup.

But he wanted one — and got it.

Messi and Inter Miami have completed their ascent, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 on Saturday in the MLS Cup final for the franchise’s first championship. It came 2 1/2 years after the legend arrived in South Florida, a move that stunned plenty of onlookers at the time.

He set up the title-clinching goal with a 72nd-minute assist to Rodrigo De Paul, a play where Messi stole the ball and threaded a pass through a tiny gap in a wall of Vancouver defenders.

De Paul got it in stride, pushed it into the far corner of the net — and Messi went airborne to hop into his arms a few seconds later, all smiles.

And as the final minutes ticked away, Inter Miami’s pink-clad fans — most wearing Messi’s No. 10 on their backs — stood and stomped and cheered.

South Florida has seen NFL and NBA and Major League Baseball and NHL titles in the past.

It’s a soccer town now, too. Messi made that happen. Tadeo Allende scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time — off another Messi assist, of course — to make it 3-1.

Inter Miami became the 16th franchise in the league’s 30-year history to win an MLS title.

And this extends a run of parity for MLS, which has seen five different franchises win championships in the last five years and eight franchises claim a title in the last nine seasons — only Columbus has won twice in that span.