Barcelona’s proposal for a friendly rejected by Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami – report

Journalist Joan Poqui has mentioned via Mundo Deportivo that Barcelona proposed a friendly match to Inter Miami as part of their pre-season tour of the United States this year.

But the MLS club, home to Barcelona legends Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suarez, rejected the approach due to their commitments in the Leagues Cup, where they will enter the competition as the defending champions.

Barça plan to return to the United States in 2024, but the exact dates of the tour are yet to be confirmed mostly because the UEFA Euro 2024 will end on July 14, and the Olympic Games football tournament will be played between July 24 to August 10. 

Owing to the aforementioned, the team from Catalonia might delay the tour to wait for players who aren’t in the Euro Cup’s final rounds.

This pre-season will be shorter

MD affirms that this time, Barcelona’s pre-season tour of the United States will be shorter than it was in 2023 when they spent over two weeks.

Last year, Xavi’s team stayed in Los Angeles for ten days and played in Dallas and Las Vegas toward the end of their visit.

It is said that instead of settling in one place, Barça want to use a base to travel for friendly matches. for the summer 2024 tour, the team is considering stops in Orlando and New York.

Meanwhile, it is to be noted that they did try the Inter Miami sports city back in 2022 when the two teams locked horns in a friendly.

In that contest, Barcelona emerged 6-0 victorious with goals coming from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Raphinha, Ansu Fati, Gavi, Memphis Depay and Ousmane Dembele. 

Back then, the only star name Inter Miami had was a certain Gonzalo Higuaín. But now, Barcelona are exploring other options since the team of Messi, Busquets, Alba, and Suarez can not participate due to the Leagues Cup.