Two years after his departure from the club, Messi may return to FC Barcelona upon the expiration of his contract with Paris Saint-Germainat the end of the season according to Santi Aouna and Gerard Romero.
Several recent news reports have spoken about Messi's intention to return to Barcelona, even though it was expected some time ago that he would renew his contract with Paris for another year.
However, these reports claimed that Messi is seriously considering a return to Barcelona because he believes in Xavi’s sporting project and because his family prefers living in Barcelona. It is widely known that the 35-year-old Argentinean cares a lot about family and he considers them when making decisions about his professional life.
According to a report by Mirror, Messi’s family has struggled to adapt to life in Paris, and his wife, Antonela, has been pushing him to return back home to Barcelona. Moreover, the report claimed his kids have also found it difficult to settle in Paris because they could neither adjust to the windy and rainy weather nor learn to speak French instead of Spanish. In addition, his wife and kids have felt the strain of being apart from their friends in Barcelona.
Despite this, even if Messi has a desire to return to Barcelona, he and the Barcelona team management would face a financial problem. Barcelona is facing an issue with the Financial Fair Play rules of La Liga, as they must reduce their wage budget in order to register new players.
“Barcelona is not ruled out, but at the same time Messi is aware that it is not easy to find the financial fit to carry out an operation like this, for what they can offer him and for the League to give the go-ahead,” Catalonian Radio RAC1 stated.
Moreover, the success of Messi's possible return to Barcelona would require repairing the relationship between his agent and father, Jorge Messi, and the Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
The relationship between the two men deteriorated after Messi's surprise and traumatic exit from the club in the summer of 2021.
At the time, FC Barcelona claimed that Messi's exit came due to league regulations although Messi was prepared to take a 50 percent salary reduction so that the club could register him in the Spanish league, according to previous reports.
A statement from Barcelona said that despite “having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish La Liga regulations on player registration.”
After this decision by the club and reaching an agreement with Paris, Jorge Messi blamed Laporta. He held him responsible for Messi's exit after twenty-one years of unparalleled brilliance with the club.
Barça Universal said that “it is reported that Jorge not only has trust issues with the Barcelona board but also does not believe the reasoning that they were unable to register Messi due to the wage bill.”
Nevertheless, according to Catalunya Radio via SPORT, Jorge Messi and Joan Laporta met in February of 2023 in Barcelona to discuss Lionel Messi's reciprocation to Barcelona.
“Laporta connected with Messi's father, Jorge Messi, to discuss various subjects, including a potential tribute match. The Blaugrana president didn't confirm nor deny whether a summer transfer was brought up,” some reports claimed.
Furthermore, president Laporta described Messi as the best player in history and an essential player in Barcelona's history. Marca also claimed that Barcelona’s doors are always open for Messi.
“I have to find a way to improve Messi's current relationship with Barcelona,” Laporta continued.
In this context, Messi’s close friend and former teammate in the Argentine national team, Sergio Aguero, stated that Messi should retire in Barcelona, his home. Aguero also believed that “Laporta should try to bring Leo back, and if Laporta takes a step forward, Messi returns to Barcelona. Right now, it's 50/50.”
In conclusion, there has been a lot of talk about Lionel Messi's return to Barcelona over the past two years. What may increase Messi's desire to return to Barcelona again is his questionable individual performance with Paris Saint-Germain in addition to the match terrible results of the club, especially in the Champions League.
Indeed, PSG fans booed Messi last week before the start of the home game against Rennes because of his performance in the Champions League loss to Bayern Munich, Daily Mail reported.
Messi's performance with Paris has been controversial since his arrival but intensified after winning the World Cup in Qatar 2022. During the World Cup, Messi delivered an exceptional individual performance and showed a leadership personality to bring the World Cup to his national team. It seems that the legendary performance by Messi increased the anger of Paris fans, who believe he does not exert the same effort for their team as he did for Argentina and Barcelona.
Edited By: Ashelyn Wagner
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