On Tuesday, Jordi Alba surprised most of us when he announced he would be retiring following the 2025 MLS season, only months after he signed a contract extension that suggested the 36-year-old would play a couple more years as Lionel Messi’s teammate.

Alba’s departure follows that of Sergio Busquets, the recipient of much fanfare at Inter Miami’s last home match Saturday night. The future of Luis Suarez is also unclear.

None of this is expected to disrupt Messi’s reported plans to return to Miami for a multi-year extension that still hasn’t been officially announced. It does, however, mean the future Inter Miami squad that surrounds him will look a lot less like an FC Barcelona alumni gathering.

Instead, it could resemble something closer to the Argentina national team, a group tha

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