After Inter Miami’s 2-2 tie with Austin, Lionel Messi became popular for an odd reason. Fans thought the renowned forward was still searching for his retired former teammate Jordi Alba after he made a rare missed pass.
Messi was in the spotlight for the wrong reasons following Inter Miami’s 2-2 draw with the Texas team, despite his career being characterised by surgical passing and unmatched vision. The great forward made a brief mistake during the match at Nu Stadium when he unleashed a pass down the left flank into empty space. Messi played a weighted ball toward the touchline in an attempt to start an attack, but he never saw an overlapping run. His teammates watched in bewilderment as the ball rolled harmlessly out of play.
The bizarre moment led to instant comparisons to Messi’s long-term partnership with the veteran Spanish defender. The commentator covering the match summed up the sentiment perfectly, joking that “the ghost of Jordi Alba was over there” as the ball trickled into the vacant space where the full-back used to reside. Alba, who shared nine trophy-laden years with Messi at Barcelona before joining him in Florida in 2023, called time on his professional career end of last year. However, it seems that nearly a decade of telepathic understanding between the two has left Messi with habits that are proving difficult to break in the post-Alba era.
Supporters were quick to point out that the error was likely a result of deep-seated muscle memory rather than a decline in ability. Social media was flooded with reactions, with one fan noting on X that “Messi misses Alba for real,” while another suggested the captain simply “forgot Alba retired for a moment”. The sentiment was echoed throughout the digital space, with users commenting that “muscle memory is real” and joking that the superstar was “out here passing to ghosts”.
