The Argentine playmaker is the highest-paid player in the history of the league but his deal with the Herons is not as long as first thought.

In a new change for the 2024 season MLS has released a ‘roster profile’ for all 29 teams, outlining the contract lengths and classifications for all players.

The league is hoping to make the often complicated roster composition rules – designated players, TAM players, U22 initiative players – more transparent and easier for fans to understand. MLS teams must abide by strict salary restrictions but are allowed a number of exceptions for outstanding players.

At Inter Miami the three senior DP slots are filled by Leonardo Campana, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi, who each have annual salaries that exceed the maximum salary of $683,750. Messi’s annual Inter Miami salary of $20.4 million was previously released, but the length of his contract was less clear.

Initially it had been reported that Lionel Messi’s deal would keep him at the club until the end of the 2025 season, with the option for another year. However the new roster profile shows that their is no formal clause in the contract that would see him remain through 2026.

What is an MLS TAM player?

The financial controls in place in MLS make it difficult for Inter Miami to pay the necessary salaries to attract their star-studded squad. In addition to Messi, Busquets and Campana the Herons have signed Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez, along with experienced players like Nicolas Freire and Julian Gressel.

Alba, Suarez, Freire and Gressel are all designated as TAM players, meaning that ‘Targeted Allocation Money’ is being used to supplement their earnings. At the start of each season every team in MLS is given a sum of money, TAM, to help bolster their first team. This money can be used to fund new signings or, in the case of Inter Miami, to ‘buy down’ a player’s salary to prevent them taking one of three designated player spots.

For example, Luis Suarez is only receiving an annual salary of $200,000 from Inter Miami, a fraction of what he could earn elsewhere. However his wages can be enhanced by TAM payments to take his earnings up to $1,651,250.

Despite early concerns about his fitness, 37-year-old Suarez has proved a big success in the first few months in MLS. The Uruguayan has scored nine goals and contributed six assists across 14 games for the Herons. He was rested for last weekend’s win over the New England Revolution but came off the bench to score in the final minutes.