Lionel Messi already has a date to return to FC Barcelona.
Lionel Messi already has a date set to return to FC Barcelona.
The club’s greatest player memorably left his boyhood club in tears in the summer of 2021 after chairman Joan Laporta’s board failed to navigate La Liga’s strict salary cap and offered him new terms in what was then considered the most lucrative sports contract of all time. expired.
Paris Saint Germain were on hand to seize a golden opportunity and allowed the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner to continue his career in the top flight by offering him a two-year contract which would net him around 30 million euros ( $32.2 million) per season.
On June 30, however, this arrangement also comes to an end and Messi’s future is the subject of great interest around the world.
Some reports put him on the verge of renewing with PSG, amid rumors of a tempting offer from Saudi Arabiabut he has also been linked with Barca.
This week Messi’s brother Matias launched an explosive diatribe where he mocked a potential Camp Nou return and said Messi’s entourage would kick Laporta out of the club if that happened.
At a press conference yesterday, Laporta tried to put the row to bed saying it hasn’t affected the relationship between Messi and the club.
According BRANDhowever, it’s ‘completely broken’ and Messi’s only return date would be June 2026, when Laporta could possibly lose a bid to be re-elected.
By then, Messi would be 39 and possibly defending Argentina’s World Cup title won in Qatar in December.
He didn’t show much interest in becoming a manager, once narrative Star+“I don’t really intend to be a coach, but [ex-Real Madrid manager Zinedine] Zidane said exactly that and after that he became a coach and won the Champions League three times.”
“I like the sporting director, the building of teams, coaching coaches, but I’m not entirely sure about that either,” he added.
Messi is then likely to take on one of those roles when he returns to his second ‘home’, where he landed as a shy 13-year-old prospect from Argentina and where his three children were born.
Unless Laporta can mend the fences, that won’t happen until the soft-talking ex-lawyer and politician is history.