Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets has signed a contract with Inter Miami that will see him reunited with Argentine superstar Lionel Messi through the 2025 season, the Major League Soccer club said Sunday.<\/p>\n
Completion of the deal comes a day after Messi, who sparked Argentina to a World Cup title last year in Qatar, signed his own contract with the club.<\/span><\/p>\n Inter had announced last month that they were acquiring Busquets, who will be reunited with his former Barcelona teammate Messi.<\/span><\/p>\n The one-time World Cup champion, nine-time La Liga winner and former Barca captain will occupy a Designated Player slot and is expected to join the team \u201cin the coming days,\u201d Inter said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am excited to welcome Sergio Busquets to Inter Miami,\u201d managing owner Jorge Mas said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSince day one we have set out to bring the world\u2019s best players to Inter Miami. Sergio\u2019s repertoire speaks for itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Busquets, 34, said in May that he would leave Barcelona this year at the end of his contract.<\/span><\/p>\n He made 134 appearances for Spain before announcing his retirement from the team in December.<\/span><\/p>\n Busquets has been a central part of Barcelona\u2019s successes in the past 15 years, including three Champions League triumphs.<\/span><\/p>\n Busquets played as pivot behind Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez in an iconic midfield trio, and the three of them also won the World Cup with Spain in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe is one of the smartest players to ever play the sport,\u201d Inter\u2019s sporting director Chris Henderson said. \u201cHe reads the game at an unprecedented level and impacts every facet of play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Busquets said the move offered a \u201cspecial and exciting opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was impressed by the cub when I came with Barcelona last year and now I\u2019m happy and ready to represent the club myself. I can\u2019t wait to help bring the success that this ambitious club strives for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The signing comes a day after Messi inked the contract that has energized football fans in Miami and beyond, and on the same day that Inter planned to officially present him at an \u201cunveiling\u201d at the club\u2019s ground.<\/span><\/p>\n Messi and Busquets arrive as Inter Miami sinks to the very bottom of Major League Soccer.<\/span><\/p>\n The club\u2019s winless run extended to 11 games with a 3-0 defeat at St. Louis City on Saturday \u2013 their 14th defeat in 22 games.<\/span><\/p>\n Miami are bottom of the Eastern Conference and their latest loss also left them in last place in the overall standings \u2013 29th of 29 clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n Messi has been expected to make his debut on Friday against Cruz Azul in the new Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring all the top-flight teams from MLS and Mexico\u2019s Liga MX.<\/span><\/p>\n Inter said Busquets will first be available for\u00a0the\u00a0same\u00a0game.<\/span><\/p>\n AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets has signed a contract with Inter Miami that will see him reunited with Argentine superstar Lionel Messi through the 2025 season, the Major League Soccer club said Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7279,54,7278],"class_list":["post-14365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-inter-miami","tag-messi","tag-sergio-busquets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14367,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14365\/revisions\/14367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}