Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul are the last men standing. As the 2025 Leagues Cup field thins heading into its later rounds, the two Argentine World Cup partners remain the tournament's sole active representatives still competing — a distinction that carries weight well beyond individual glory.
For Inter Miami, the stakes could hardly be tighter. The Leagues Cup runs concurrent with MLS regular season play, and every result in this competition carries direct implications for where Miami lands in the Eastern Conference standings when the playoff picture fully crystallizes. A deep run means minutes, momentum and meaningful match experience for Miami's two most important players as Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni monitors his roster ahead of the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
Messi, now 37, has made no secret of his intention to play in the 2026 tournament — a World Cup staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico that would serve as the defining farewell to the greatest international career the sport has ever produced. De Paul, his midfield anchor and one of the most important players in Argentina's 2022 Qatar triumph, shares that ambition. Both men understand that sustained form at club level is the price of admission to Scaloni's plans.
That dynamic transforms what might otherwise be a secondary summer tournament into something with genuine consequence. Every Messi appearance in the Leagues Cup is a data point — for Scaloni, for Miami's coaching staff, for a fanbase that paid to watch a footballer operating at a level no American league has previously hosted. De Paul's engine in midfield, his ability to press, recover and distribute across 90 minutes, is equally under the microscope.
For Miami, the competitive math is straightforward: advance in the Leagues Cup, collect the FIFA ranking points that come with it, and do so while keeping both players sharp rather than rested. The alternative — an early exit that sends Messi and De Paul back into MLS play with rust and frustration — is a scenario the club cannot afford as the Eastern Conference race tightens.
No other Leagues Cup participant can claim two players simultaneously chasing a World Cup on this trajectory. That asymmetry alone makes Inter Miami the tournament's most closely watched remaining side — and Messi and De Paul its most consequential story as summer turns toward autumn and 2026 begins to feel very close indeed.