So says Xavi Hernandez, coach of Barcelona and former teammate of Lionel Messi in the times of greatest glory of the Catalan club. "It's up in the air, it depends on a lot of things. There is little more I can say. He is a spectacular footballer, he is a person with whom I have a friendship and we will see if it can be given. It will depend on Leo's intention," the coach said Monday at a press conference when asked about the hypothetical return of the Argentine to Camp Nou.
More explicit was Rafa Yuste, vice president of the sports area of the institution, who at the end of April had already publicly expressed his desire for Messi to wear the blaugrana shirt again. "I want Leo to return, as a culer that I am and for everything he has given to the club, because he has come from the quarry and for the extraordinary relationship we have always had. Beautiful stories have to end well. He left, I still have this sorrow, but hopefully he decides to come back," Yuste told DAZN after the weekend's match against Real Sociedad.
Yuste's is in tune with what President Joan Laporta had released. In full excitement for the consecration of Barcelona in the field of Espanyol, just over a week ago, the head of the institution warned: "Barça can compete with Saudi Arabia and with anyone."
Messi, on Sunday, played the full 90 minutes for PSG against Auxerre and secured first place in France's Ligue 1.
The concrete, beyond the expressions of desire, is that a little more than a month before the end of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain, Messi has not defined his future. This was hinted at by Jorge, his father and representative, in the message he posted weeks ago when a French media closed his incorporation to Al Hilal.
And even more concrete is that Barcelona is not yet in a financial position to register the best player in its (and the) history. For now.
"Operation Messi"
This is revealed on Monday by the Catalan sports media. And they explain that once LaLiga is issued in the Barcelona case – at this time the racist scandal against Vinícius Junior ran everything else on the scene – the club's executives will enter the scene to see if the financial engineering plan necessary to repatriate Leo is viable.
"The sports vice president, Eduard Romeu, has not stopped warning recently that 'for there to be additions there must be equivalent sales' but it is no less true that a positive response from LaLiga to Barça at this point in the film would be a first step to give reasons for tranquility to the Messi, "describes the journalist Sergi Solé in a note published in Mundo Deportivo.
In that sense, the figure of Xavi will be key, who has to put together a huge list of expendable and saleable players, knowing that he must open the door yes or yes for the famous salary mass of the squad to adapt to an eventual return of Messi. It won't be easy. It is not a matter of putting players for sale and nothing more. It is also necessary to make a balanced squad that is capable of fighting on all fronts. Especially to go on the hunt for the Champions League, which is the tournament that reveals both Xavi and Messi.
It is known, however, that where there is a green light is among the Barcelona players. The chiefs of the campus await him with open arms. "Messi, dammit," bellowed Uruguayan Ronald Araújo in the title celebrations. "It would be incredible," said Dutchman Frenkie de Jong. They both already know what it's like to have Messi as a teammate.
Poland's Robert Lewandowski was not far behind. Not only did he hint at the enthusiasm generated by sharing the court with Leo, but a couple of weeks ago he was seen chatting animatedly with him and Antonela Roccuzzo at the Laureus awards gala. A sign that the old sizzles for the Ballon d'Or are already forgotten.
The clamor operation already takes several bodies of advantage to the financial operation. The important thing, they say for Catalonia, is that the goal both find Messi again dressed in blaugrana.
Source: agencies
See also