A bombshell: twenty years after his arrival at FC Barcelona with which he had ended up being confused, Lionel Messi (33) sent a registered letter on Tuesday via his lawyers to formalize his decision to leave. This procedural aspect would have a contractual justification: according to several Argentine media, the Argentinian had until May 31 to activate a unilateral departure clause for 0 euros while it would cost some 700 million euros after that date but the delay of the season due to the coronavirus (with a Champions League final on August 23 rather than the end of May) is pleading, opening a door for the Blaugrana striker.
No leader has publicly dared to contradict his star for twenty-four hours: here we are on the same level in a world where the players lead and the leaders are silent, especially when they, President Josep Maria Bartomeu in the lead, are accused since February by the Spanish radio Cadena SER of having hired a dispensary to smear the image of certain stars of the club (Messi, Gerard Piqué) on social networks, just to give themselves additional political leeway.
Gifted
There is something degenerate about the Catalan mastodon, something that belongs to it. And Messi is, reluctantly or not, at the origin. During the three derailments suffered by Barça on the European front over the past three seasons (0-3 in the quarter-final second leg of the 2017-2018 Champions League in Rome, 0-4 in the return semifinal of this same competition in 2019 in Liverpool, 2-8 against Bayern two weeks ago), Messi was indeed on the pitch like the others. And if he judges his teammates weak, probably rightly, it is not for nothing either: to siphon off 70 million euros of salary each season without bonuses according to the Catalan media, twice what touches Neymar at Paris-SG, he de facto jeopardizes the competitiveness of the whole, the midfielder Sergio Busquets rebelling in December against the too low number of players under professional contract called to play the 2019-2020 financial year.
Messi at Barça, this is one of the most edifying stories that have been given to us to live: a gifted with nearly fifty goals a year, doing everything (running, dribbling, hitting) much faster than the others , carried to the top by one of the most successful collective organizations of its time. Collective organization that could also win without the Argentinian: the two European Championships (2008, 2012) and the World Cup (2010) won by the Spanish selection testify to this.
Talent and illusion
Then we started to confuse everything. At the end of the 2010-2011 Champions League final, the Catalan coach at the time, Pep Guardiola, gave everything to the player: “This victory is first of all his.” Five years later, during a European quarter-final against Atlético Madrid, an incredible statistic falls: Messi ran less than the opposing goalkeeper, the Slovenian Jan Oblak. The worm is in the fruit. Messi puts on goal wagons, collective strength fades with the drop in performance or the disappearance of the golden generation of Spanish football (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol …) and the Argentinian grows mechanically in the photo as those around him are shrinking.
The salary grows in proportion, blackmail at the start helping: if he leaves, what remains? Tuesday, Messi somehow delivered the coup de grace: after having, by his immense talent, maintained the illusion that a player could win titles alone, he pushes the most beautiful brand of contemporary football into the unknown. Or rather if: the rediscovery of a collective prism, a (relative) salary balance in the locker room, races more evenly shared between the offensive players, no right pass or pressure to save a friend’s place . Perhaps Antoine Griezmann, enslaved for a year in this funny locker room, will not be worse off.
Gregory Schneider
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