The last lever is Messi: Barcelona's attempts to recover 10

Lionel Messi was taken down from his Olympus on August 5, 2021 and forced to build a different one, less brilliant, although surely more miraculous with Argentina in Qatar.

That day, his father and his agent Jorge informed him that Barcelona would not sign the contract they had agreed to.

And a guy used to breaking down in public just out of anger and impotence melted into tears two days later at the 1899 Auditorium at the Camp Nou.

Several of those identified as the culprits of his departure witnessed in the front row how the Argentine emphasized: "I did everything possible to stay, I don't know about the club."

Cold greetings for some, contempt for others, and the Flea headed for Paris.

From that moment on, Messi ignored any type of flirtation with Barcelona, ​​of course also with Joan Laporta.

Until last Wednesday, February 15.

So,

After the meeting between Jorge Messi and the PSG board, Barça reappeared on the scene.

And Jorge did not close the door.

"We are serious about Leo", they say in the leadership of Laporta.

Xavi Hernández, of course, celebrates it.

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Leo Messi, in everyone's mouth

After losing in the Champions League and the Europa League and, above all, after the defeat suffered at the Camp Nou against Madrid in the Cup (0-4), both Xavi's coaching staff and the sports management understand that the azulgrana squad has been half built.

"Another revolution is missing," sources from the technical secretary emphasize.

In the coaching staff they add: "We already saw it in the classic, when Pedri, Frenkie and Ousmane are not there, we lack talent from three quarters of the field upwards and Leo in that area continues to be number 1."

Xavi was still training in Qatar when Messi left Barcelona.

He was present, however, the day Messi said goodbye to the Camp Nou.

“We are close friends”, both parties agree;

"We have never lost touch."

Sometimes in person, on a few occasions by phone, generally through messages and audios, Xavi and Messi are used to talking.

The Barça staff understand the possible return of Rosario as the lever for next summer, a political and sports balm in a club cornered by the courts and without financial margin, in search of his lost sports place.

"The return of Messi would help us a lot, not only at an institutional level but also at a football level," they analyze in the coaching staff.

Waiting for Laporta to have both a private and public gesture with Messi, the Barça coach is the best bridge between Paris and Barcelona for the Argentine.

Messi, in any case, continues in contact with Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

In fact, on his last visit to Barcelona, ​​the three of them (along with their partners) dined at the Born.

That night, the Argentine told his teammates that he had not yet decided his future.

"Can you come back here?" they asked.

Messi smiled.

He didn't say anything else.

In his stage at the Camp Nou, the 10th did not comment in the locker room, not even a visit to the dentist.

"The next day he appears in Sport and in Mundo Deportivo that he has a toothache," they jokingly claimed in the Messi office on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona.

So, the happy silence of the man from Rosario at dinner with Alba and Busquets was interpreted as a good sign in Barcelona: La Pulga lowered the tension.

A few days later, always in February, Jorge Messi met with Laporta two years after the tough conversation they had in August 2021 when the president had told him that "there was nothing to do and that Leo could not be renewed." ”.

This time, the talk, in a hotel in Barcelona, ​​was cordial.

It lasted barely half an hour and there was only talk of a possible tribute to Messi before he left Europe.

They agreed to talk again.

It happened then that the sports vice president Rafa Yuste came up: "We are in contact with Messi."

Yuste's response surprised both the Argentine's entourage and the Barça sports management.

“We have a very horny vice president.

We would also like to go to lunch with Scarlett Johansson, but you have to be prudent, ”he was heard at the Camp Nou.

Xavi came out at the crossroads.

“It is a subject that we are dealing with, but from now until it can be done, there is a world left”, commented the coach.

Until now, between Messi and Barcelona, ​​there has been a meeting between Laporta and Jorge, to which is added a historic emissary of the president who, since La Pulga left the Camp Nou, has acted as an intermediary between the Rosario family and the Barca top executive.

Besides, of course, the many messages between Leo and Xavi.

There is, however, no formal proposal.

The key to Messi's return is held by the president of the League, Javier Tebas.

"We depend on fair-play," says an employee of the technical secretariat.

At Barça they trust that, after the Super League project cools down, the relationship with Thebes can be redirected.

For that, they are already working.

The Catalan entity calculates that the salary mass will be estimated at around 500 million, 150 less than this season, but still without reaching the 450 that they want from the economic area.

“Before talking about Leo, we first have to register Gavi, Araujo and Balde.

And then we will see if the League accepts the feasibility plan that we will present to you shortly for Messi's registration.

We have to see how Tebas reacts ”, they explain in the Barça sports management.

"We would love for Messi to return as long as Barça complies with the regulations," he stressed in LaLiga.

If the president of the employers' association gives the go-ahead, then Barça will contact Jorge Messi again.

It would not be the first time that Barcelona travels to Paris in vain.

He tried it with Verratti in 2017, never as publicly exposed as when Josep Maria Bartomeu and company became infatuated with getting Neymar back in 2019. Nobody moves from France if they don't want it in Qatar.

This time, it's different.

Messi is not trapped in Paris.

When Messi signed for PSG he agreed to a two-year contract, plus one.

The optional is only activated in the event that both parties agree.

And everything seemed to indicate that Messi would extend his stay in Paris.

The man from Rosario had begun works in his house and, most importantly, with the sports director Luis Campos they had talked about completing the third year of the relationship.

However, Jorge Messi was surprised when he arrived in Paris to talk about the new PSG project.

Few reinforcements.

And many doubts.

The unknowns hover over both the bench and the ability of the French club to square the financial fair-play.

Money to sign, surely they do not lack.

The last dance of the 10

Of course, there was a clear message for Messi: nobody, neither in Paris nor in Qatar, wanted the Flea to pack their bags.

The matter, no less, is that while the Argentine delays his decision, media related to the Parisian entity question the Rosario at the same time that a part of the Parisian fans whistles at him.

His 19 goals and 18 assists in 34 games do not seem enough to them.

Mbappé, for example, has 31 goals and eight assists in 35 duels, compared to Neymar's 18 and 17 in 29. In Paris they want the Orejona and PSG jump from fiasco to fiasco in the Champions League, the last one against Bayern in eighth.

PSG plays its cards, Messi his.

To the succulent offer of Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia of 400 million per season, is added the option of going to Inter Miami.

And along the way, Barça.

“One last dance, like Michael Jordan”, says Xavi.

The Barca fans were already excited: "Messi, Messi, Messi", sang the Camp Nou in the classic.

There are memories that do not lie, others that are simply forgotten.

And since the Barcelona fans keep Leo in mind, now it is Leo who has to erase the disappointment with Laporta.

But when history was judged already written, something is changing in Barcelona.

Conquered (finally) Argentina, now it seems that Messi, at 35, has the opportunity to rewrite the last pages of his life at Barça.

Nothing less than to return to his Olympus.

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