The best player ever wants to stay with the only professional team he’s ever represented, and he can’t because of an accounting issue? It seems impossible. Messi is coming off yet another career highlight this summer after winning the Copa America, his first senior international trophy for Argentina, a prize that even Pele and Messi’s compatriot Diego Maradona never hoisted.
But maybe, once again, there is a way back. Now that he wants to stay, it appears impossible. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled."īecause last summer, it looked for all the world like Messi would be leaving Barcelona. "As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. "Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles (Spanish Liga regulations)," the club later elaborated in a statement posted to its website. Sure, Barcelona had to shed a few contracts before the deal could be signed, but that seemed a mere formality. And according to all reports, Messi and the club had reached an agreement on a two-year contract extension that would allow him to leave for MLS side Inter Miami in 2023, then return to Barca as a permanent club ambassador. This summer, the club brought in veteran Argentine forward Sergio Aguero, one of Messi’s best friends, to help appease him. Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, whom Messi accused of lying to him in an explosive interview, was forced out.
But not only did he end up staying to see out the final year of a contract that pays him north of $100 million a year, he appeared to have gotten his way. Messi stunned the world last summer when, following an embarrassing Champions League loss to Bayern Munich, he made public his desire to leave the club. The club that plucked him from his native Argentina and moved him and his father to the Catalan capital had done so even though the boy had a hormone deficiency that could’ve prevented him from becoming a professional.īut Barcelona knew what it had in the little lefty, who, despite having topped out at only 5-foot-7, went on to dominate La Liga and the rest of Europe for the next 17 years, helping Barcelona to 10 Spanish titles and four of its five UEFA Champions League crowns.
He’s been with Barca since he was literally a child.
Messi, of course is widely regarded as the greatest player who ever lived. It was as if whoever had been asked to type those words and blast them out across the world couldn’t bring themselves to elaborate.
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