Messi anticipates a future in entrepreneurship at the America Business Forum: 'Soccer has an expiration date'

Lionel Messi spoke as an entrepreneur at the America Business Forum, held in Miami, Florida. The Argentine star closed the first day of the event, which will also have as speakers Donald Trump and Javier Milei, Argentine president, among others.

Messi, considered the greatest footballer of all time, is spending the last years of his career with Inter Miami. However, on this occasion he dressed in a suit to talk about his activity off the field.

He was interviewed by the mayor of the city, Francis Suarez, who later handed him the key to Miami.

The former number ten of FC Barcelona has a strong presence in the business world. He owns hotels, restaurants and even has his own clothing brand. He is also present in real estate and entertainment. On this occasion, he was interviewed by the mayor of the city, Francis Suarez.

The Argentinean, who won the World Cup with his national team in 2022, admitted that at the beginning he did not give much importance to financial matters, so he let others take care of it. However, as the years went by, he became more and more interested.

"I always had people I trusted who took care of all that, but in recent times I became much more interested in what was being done and what can be done. Football has an expiration date; at some point it ends and I like to start seeing what can be done, to see where I can start," Messi explained.

"I like business, I'm interested, I want to learn. I don't know anything, I'm just starting out in this. I know that something else is coming, another world, and little by little I'm getting into it," he added.

About his career as a soccer player, with its difficult beginnings and subsequent consecration both at club and national team level, he said the following: "God gave me a gift, he chose me. I was always like that, but then along the way I made a lot of sacrifices to strengthen that virtue I had."

Finally, Messi put into words what he felt when he won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina. In the most heartfelt part of the talk, he compared that moment with the birth of his children: "When I won the World Cup I had the same feeling, saving the distances, as when my children were born. Anyone who was lucky enough to experience it knows what it means, it's so great that everything else falls short." However, he said that winning the World Cup "didn't change my life, because I always lived the same way."