Messi sets up Miami goal in first game since Argentina retirement

BREAKING: Lionel Messi sets up an Inter Miami goal in his first game since retiring from the Argentina national team.

Lionel Messi's first game after quitting Argentina, and he's already creating goals.

Days after walking away from international football for good, the man showed up for Inter Miami and did the most Messi thing possible, slipped a pass through and set up a goal like nothing had changed. There he is, business as usual in the pink kit.

And honestly, watch him glide past Atlanta defenders here and tell me this looks like a man winding down. It doesn't. If anything, dropping the national team might be the best thing for his club form. No more flying to Buenos Aires and back, no more carrying a whole country on his shoulders. Just Messi, Miami, and defenders having a very bad evening.

The international chapter is closed. The football, clearly, is not. Every assist from here on is a reminder of exactly what Argentina just lost.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.