MIAMI — Lionel Messi’s continuing brilliance on a soccer pitch and the Messiah mania and outright worship that followed him to America puts a halo on the human and gives the G.O.A.T. an ageless quality.

Then reality reminds us:

He’s old.

Not regular-person, work-at-a-grocery store old, but athlete old. Soccer old.

We have just seen age defied at the Paris Olympics in LeBron James, at 39, leading Team USA’s rush to basketball gold. Simone Biles in gymnastics and Katie Ledecky in swimming both were doing the same at age 27, which is grandmotherly for those sports at that level.

But those are anomalies. Messi, who turned 37 in June, is not.

He is a fallible god. We wish him eternal, but everything is ephemeral.

Inter Miami and its fans are dealing with it. So is Major League Soccer and its broadcasters. So are his fans from Argentina and around the globe.

MLS and Miami knew what they were getting when Messi arrived with papal fanfare as a still-hard-to-believe gift 13 months ago. But in Year 2 that reality has set in in a way that forces us to see his career mortality. To imagine the end.

Messi has missed about half of Miami’s MLS matches this ongoing season (13 of 25) due to injuries or programmed rest, and he will miss a fourth consecutive Leagues Cup tournament match Tuesday night in the Round of 16 when the team visits the powerful Columbus Crew — reigning MLS champion — in an elimination game.

He has been sidelined since injuring his right ankle July 14 in Miami in Argentina’s 1-0 victory over Colombia in the Copa America final at Hard Rock Stadium. That was the night of chaos when thousands of fans without tickets stormed in, leaving ticket buyers without seats. Lawsuits have followed.

Also that night, Messi sobbed, knowing the ankle injury was serious. He was in a walking boot for weeks, just lately free of it.

That’s 29 Inter Miami games thus far in 2024, and 17 of them without the one player everybody wants to see due to age, injury or national team commitments. (He also missed the MLS All-Star Game injured.)

Incredibly, Inter Miami is doing well even sans its megastar.

They are in first place in the MLS East at the regular season’s two-third mark, and still alive to defend their 2023 Leagues Cup title — the trophy that was Messi’s gift on arrival. They have won seven of the last eight games without him.

But everything sags with his absence. Crowds. Excitement. Television ratings. Anticipation. Interest. We have already seen Inter Miami drop ticket prices for a home Leagues Cup match without Messi.

Inter Miami at Columbus is just another soccer game in a made-up tournament with little history if Messi is not there to fill the stadium with lightning and magic.

The Leagues Cup run could very well end Tuesday night, but that’s OK. It’s just, essentially, MLS teams vs. Mexico’s Liga MX. It’s just a two-year-old tournament with an oversized trophy.

The bigger question will be Messi’s fitness and health moving forward as MLS play resumes August 24 with a home match vs. Cincinnati, which is in second place behind Miami in the Eastern conference. Circle that date. It is targeted as what is hoped will be Messi’s comeback game after what would be 37 days’ injury absence.

Winning the MLS Cup is, and should be, Inter Miami’s big goal. Last season he arrived to a last-place team and too late to make it happen. Now the title hope is realistic, but not without a healthy Messi.

Inter Miami getting Messi has been a colossal success for the club and league, and that’s unequivocal, financially, in raised stature and most every other way. But not making Miami MLS Cup champs in his time here, however short, would leave an empty crater akin to Dan Marino never winning a Super Bowl.

If that sounds like hyperbole, consider: To Inter Miami, the MLS Cup is the Super Bowl.

Now it is fair to wonder, though: Will Messi’s ankle ligament injury and his age make a recurrence more likely? Should we expect better health and fewer games missed in 2025, when Messi’s likely last year with Miami coincidences with the opening of the new Freedom Park stadium? Will an injury like this and its possible after-effect weigh on his decision whether to captain Argentina again in the 2026 World Cup hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico?

“Leo is the greatest player in history. He was born to be on the pitch,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said the night of the Copa America final last month. “He never wants to leave the pitch.”

An international multitude of fans wants the same, that he might never leave.

The time until he does dwindles, of course, as time forever does.

It is all the more reason to appreciate and embrace what we have left, and cherish that moment coming when Messi is back on the pitch and we get to pretend again it will always be so.

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