BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lionel Messi has not yet announced when he plans to retire, but he knows that next week's match against Venezuela could be his last one playing at home in a World Cup qualifier with Argentina's national team.
“It’s going to be a very, very special match for me because it’s the last qualifying match,” the 38-year-old Messi said Wednesday night after Inter Miami progressed to the Leagues Cup final by beating Orlando City.
Argentina, with a spot already secured in next year's World Cup, will host Venezuela next Thursday at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires for the penultimate round of South American qualifiers. Its last match will be at Ecuador on Sept. 9.
Messi has hinted that he will retire from the national team after next year’s World Cup, where Argentina is going to defend the title they won in Qatar 2022.
The qualifiers for the 2030 World Cup will begin in 2027, when the soccer star will be 40 years old.
“I don’t know if there will be friendlies or more matches after (Venezuela), but it is a very special match, so my family will be there with me: my wife, my children, my parents, my siblings," Messi said. "We’re going to live it like that. I don’t know what will happen next.”
Following Messi’s statements, CONMEBOL, South American soccer's governing body, wrote on social media that “the last dance is coming,” with a picture of Messi in an Argentina shirt.
Meanwhile, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) is trying to capitalize on Messi's last home match by raising ticket prices, with the cheapest going for $100 and the most expensive costing around $500.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) celebrates with his teammates after Telasco Segovia, not shown, scored a goal during the second half of a Leagues Cup semifinal soccer match against Orlando City, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi controls the ball during the second half of a Leagues Cup semifinal soccer match against Orlando City, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
NEW YORK (AP) — A surging stock market and a flurry of deal making padded the profits of Wall Street's two big investment banks, which both saw a double-digit jump in profits in the fourth quarter.
Goldman Sachs's net earnings rose 12% from a year earlier, posting a profit of $4.62 billion, or $14.01 a share. Meanwhile Morgan Stanley said it earned $4.4 billion, or $2.68 per share, compared to a profit of $3.71 billion, or $2.22 per share, compared to a year earlier.
Wall Street has been bolstered by the Trump administration's deregulatory policies, which has led corporations to seek out mergers and acquisitions, as well as the surge of investor interest in artificial intelligence companies and those who stand to benefit from the mass adoption of technologies like ChatGPT.
Fourth-quarter investment fee revenues over at Goldman were up 25% year-over-year and Morgan Stanley saw a 47% jump in revenue in its investment banking division. Both banks said their investment fee backlog, which is a signal of how much deal making is still pending that banks are working on, increased significantly in the fourth quarter.
Goldman and Morgan's results reflect the strong earnings out of the other big banks that reported their results this week. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup all saw jumps in fourth-quarter profits, but their results were dampened by the ongoing tensions that Wall Street is having with the White House over the issue of the independence of the Federal Reserve and President Donald Trump's interest in capping credit card interest rates at 10%.
Along with a strong investment banking performance, Goldman Sachs also agreed to sell off its Apple Card credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase last week, effectively exiting its brief experiment in consumer banking. The bank sold the credit card portfolio at a discount to JPMorgan, a sign of how desperately Goldman wanted to exit the business and put the Apple Card behind it.
This story has been corrected to show that Morgan Stanley's investment banking revenues rose 47%, not 22%.
FILE - Electronic signage is shown at Morgan Stanley headquarters, Thursday, March 4, 2021 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
