Lionel Messi at Inter Miami: Has a player this good ever played in a team this bad before? | OneFootball

Lionel Messi has surely never played in a worse team than this one.

To be fair, that’s not exactly the hottest take in the world, given the level he played across his time in Europe.

Not once did Barcelona finish lower than third during his time at the club, while at his peak the club finished in the top two for 11 successive seasons, winning the La Liga title in eight of those years.

Barca were abject in his final year, living with the consequences of the disastrous recruitment under Josep Maria Bartomeu; the likes of Sergino Dest, Oscar Mingueza, Martin Braithwaite patently not at the level.

At their absolute nadir, Messi’s Barcelona still finished third in the league, made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League, and won the Copa del Rey.

There’s recently been a post-mortem on the Messi-Mbappe-Neymar era at PSG, their disappointing early exits in Europe looking even worse in the light of the club’s subsequent exploits under Luis Enrique.

Even then, they cruised to back-to-back Ligue 1 titles – while the club finished runners-up to Lille in the season before Messi’s arrival.

There have been some pretty honking Argentina teams along the way, not least the dysfunctional side under Jorge Sampaoli that got ripped to shreds by Croatia and France at the 2018 World Cup. But even that team scored three goals against the eventual champions and boasted world-class players like Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero.

When Messi arrived at Inter Miami, the MLS club looked hopeless. They were sitting bottom of the MLS table when the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner arrived in the summer of 2013. And yet, fresh from lifting the World Cup, he inspired that average, limited side to the Leagues Cup – the club’s first ever piece of silverware.

His first full season out in the States saw the club win the Supporters’ Shield, given to the club with the best regular-season record, while year two brought the MLS Cup and a victory over Porto at the Club World Cup – the first time in history that an MLS club has won a competitive match against European opposition.

But things have taken a swift downturn since Messi ripped Major League Soccer a new one in 2025. He continues to deliver the goods, averaging a goal every 122 minutes and well in the mix to become the first player in MLS history to retain the Golden Boot.

Messi looked on it in Saturday night’s Florida derby against Orlando City, notching his first assist of the campaign to make it 2-0 before linking up with old pal Luis Suarez to make it 3-0 before half-time.

The goal, in particular, was vintage Messi. Quick footwork before rifling home from outside the box. Change the colours on his kit, and it could easily be 2009. Or 2015. Or 2022.

Inter Miami looked to be cruising to a comfortable victory… only for Orlando to fire back and mount a four-goal comeback, winning 4-3. And that’s an Orlando side who are languishing near the bottom of the Eastern Conference table, yet to add Antoine Griezmann to their ranks.

“Our captain spoke, and obviously gave us a bunch of words,” defender Ian Fray told reporters after the final whistle.

“He encouraged us for the next game and said this is unacceptable. We all agreed with him, it is unacceptable, and it won’t happen again for sure.”

Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets retired at the end of last season, while manager Javier Mascherano stepped down amid the club’s unconvincing start to 2026. They do have his trusted Argentina team-mate Rodrigo De Paul, and Luis Suarez, but as a collective things just aren’t clicking.

Inter Miami are third in the Western Conference, but they’ve won fewer than half their matches. Messi has notched 26 key passes – the final pass before a team-mate shoots at goal – in MLS this season. Only three players have notched more. And yet it took until his 10th appearance for one of those key passes to become a goal, and for Messi to claim an assist.

Their remarkable collapse against Orlando has us asking the question: Has any player this good played in a team this bad before?