Jordi Alba’s unexpected decision: He sheds light on why he’s retiring after this MLS season

Jordi Alba thought he wanted to play another couple of years, which likely would have meant more time sharing the field with Lionel Messi.

And then, he simply changed his mind.

Alba spoke in advance of an Inter Miami training session Friday about his decision to retire, one that was announced earlier this week but was made a few weeks earlier. And one he stands by now.

“I think it’s the best,” Alba said in his native Spanish at the team’s training base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Physically, I still feel good, but … I think it’s the most honest, the fairest thing to do. And it’s also a decision that I make alone and I think it’s the right decision.”

Alba will finish this season with Inter Miami in the Major League Soccer playoffs, then wrap up a career that saw him play for Spain in three different World Cups — 2014, 2018 and 2022 — plus help Barcelona win six Spanish league titles, five Copa del Rey trophies and the Champions League in 2015.

“The best thing to do is to step aside,” Alba said. “I think it’s something to be proud of the career I’ve had.”

Inter Miami will pay tribute to Alba on Saturday night, after the team’s match against Atlanta United. It’ll be the second major retirement ceremony in the span of a couple weeks for the club; Sergio Busquets, another longtime Messi teammate, is also retiring when this season ends.

Alba has made 95 appearances across all competitions for Inter Miami, with 14 goals and 38 assists.

Alba, Busquets and Luis Suarez — whose status for 2026 and beyond isn’t certain — were all together in Barcelona with Messi, and all signed up relatively quickly to come to MLS when Messi stunned many in the soccer world by choosing to sign with Inter Miami midway through 2023. Messi’s contract is also up after this season, though he and the team have been working on a new deal for months.

“Thanks to you, Jordi. I am going to miss you a lot. After many things together, it’s going to feel strange to look to my left and not see you there,” Messi wrote in a message to Alba on Instagram earlier this week.

Messi and Alba have made little secret of how they have a connection on the field that cannot be easily explained, a sixth sense of sorts of always knowing where the other is and where they are going.

“That back pass that we have done many times … the opponents, well, they already knew it (was coming), but maybe the timing that we had or that we have today is still working,” Alba said. “I’m very happy to have been able to play with the best in the history of the game. I also give him a lot of assists, but he has also given me practically all the goals I have scored. I’m proud to have played with him for so many years.”

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AP MLS: https://apnews.com/hub/major-league-soccer