On the evening of August 4, 2021, he and his family flew from Ibiza to Barcelona, landing in El Prat around 8pm local time. The holidays are over, as she thinks, her children are excited about another year at school in Casteldaufels and she is looking forward to another season at Camp Nou. It will be his 18th.
Everything was arranged: An agreement has been reached to renew his contract The club he played for since the age of 13. His salary would be half, but he was happy. All he had to do was go and sign it the next day.
Overnight, literally overnight, everything changed. Messi was asked to leave: Go and find another club. A statement was released by Barcelona that evening; The skipper could not continue. He did not return to the city for 24 hours.
Three days later, Messi spoke, although speaking was not easy at all. “It’s hard, I’m not ready for it,” he said. It was the worst moment of his career, he admits, and it wasn’t about to get any better. League financial fair rules He was not allowed to renew, which is a way of putting it, the choice of many to suit them. Barcelona’s finances did not allow Another is that it came as news to him.
“I thought everything was arranged,” Messi said. “I was sure that I would continue, there would be no problem. I had no doubts. We decided, we would stay.” Instead, he went to Paris. And Paris was terrible.
Because Messi remembers leaving Barcelona, how it happened and everything that happened after, how it affected him and his family, how sad it was to be away from home, he is not going back to Barcelona. Two years and Joining Inter Miami in MLS Instead. Which may sound a little contradictory, even a little crazy, but it’s the truth. A large part of it, at least.
“Last season was very difficult, very, very difficult and that’s one of the reasons,” Messi said of leading Barcelona.
A lot has become clear in the wake of Messi’s announcement that he will be joining Miami and the interview he gave to explain why, but there is one thing above all, a recurring theme that hits hard: how bad it was back then and how he can’t let Barcelona down one more time. How little he believed. How little he trusted them to actually make his return. He certainly wasn’t going to risk it, not this time. Last time, he paid for it, and a lot.
He said, I did not want my future in the hands of anyone else. Not theirs, that’s for sure.
Last Wednesday afternoon, Messi sat in the Paris home he would soon leave with the two Catalan newspapers, Sport and Mundo Deportivo. In interviews he announced where he was going next, but didn’t really talk about it. There was little about what he hoped to achieve, not much in the way of enthusiasm.
Instead, he spoke about Barcelona. And above all he spoke of the past. It was a long conversation, and often very revealing. Mostly, it reveals why he had to leave Barca in the first place and how nothing at PSG changed his mind, which only made it worse.
“We never wanted to leave Barcelona,” he said. “I had to go to Paris.” that wasno chose. He said he was “hurt”, “angry”, that it was “ugly”. He felt like he was being made out to be the “bad guy” and I didn’t like that. He “missed Barcelona,” he said. He had “two bad years” at PSG. “I didn’t enjoy it,” he said.
“I had a spectacular month World Cup” he said, and you couldn’t help thinking: Thank the Lord for that. Because he added: “But the rest was difficult.”
All that leaves him and his family wanting to come back. Still, it made them nervous about trying to come back, risking getting caught again. Once bitten, twice shy and all. There were talks with Barcelona, particularly with manager and former teammate Xavi. Messi heard the rumours, leaks. He even said he liked them, while they seemed to hint at the possibility of heading home.
“The family was excited by what they heard,” he said. He contacted Xavi. Do you really want me? Could it really happen? Those in financial management had conversations with them, and assurances were sought. A deal has been discussed, although no concrete offer has been made.
He said, we were optimistic. And yet, what happened two years ago is still there, that fear, that reluctance to really believe. to really believe their. The talks continued, so Barcelona were more open about it, creating tension. Messi said, “There have been many leaks; There were many public announcements, too. Barcelona said they are in contact with him. They say they are improving. They said they were just waiting on the league to validate their financial viability plan.
“We hope he wants to join us,” Xavi said. It was “99% Messi’s hands,” he said. Barcelona president Joan Laporta did not prioritize Messi as his everything. In a way, he always had: Laporta was wary of it, but Messi’s stay at Barcelona was key to his campaign.
