The return from Lionel Messi is one of the next purposes of John Laporta. The return to Barça to retire from football with the same shirt he started with. The president still feels the wound of having officiated ahead of time the farewell to the club of the “best player in football history”, in his own words and that of millions of people, and wants to get him back.
There are circumstances for and circumstances against, providing a debate that will soon spread beyond the club, if it is not already taking place. Messi ends his contract with him Paris Saint Germain next June 30, so as of January it is available to listen to offers. Its continuity in Paris seems unlikely. It was a destination that was prepared for an eventuality, an urgency like the one that occurred when, in five days, Messi flew from Ibiza to Barcelona to seal the renewal and found that he could not continue at Barça.
Laporta still feels the wound of the goodbye and will deal directly with Messi to restore the relationship they had
Without intermediaries or dates
The deal is going to resume. And it will be direct. From president to footballer. It is the first bridge to be rebuilt, essential for Messi’s reunion with Barça, which was blown up a year and a half ago. Without chosen intermediaries and without planned dates. After the dispute over the World Cup, the culminating event of the season and, surely, the final transit of the Argentine star, in his fifth attempt for the only crown that has eluded him in his brilliant career.
The good reception in the entity is guaranteed. The person most responsible for his dismissal walks with open arms for that hug that was pending in August 2021, between looks of resentment and disgust for a spoken and agreed renewal that was not consummated. The team’s coach is an old colleague.
Xavi Hernandez has spoken in favor of the return of the star and his will be the critical task of reinserting him in a new wardrobe, freed from the vices accumulated when Leo was captain, and stripped of the power he held, dictatorial according to some. Another issue will be his location on the field of play and manage his presence, the starting doses and the substitution doses without hurting sensitivities or hierarchies.
The Argentine star will turn 37 in June and is heading towards retirement. Messi and his family are about to return to Barcelona to settle, so there would be no better place to finish their career than playing for Barça.
reintegration into a new group
Age is an inconvenience in a very young group, which runs more, the forward pressure has been re-imposed and which has a greater collective sense of the game, far removed from the dependency generated by the presence of Messi, justified by his decision-making capacity in matches. Of his time remain Busquets, Pique y Alba. The captain ends in 2023 and Piqué and Alba play, for now, marginal roles.
There remains the inconvenience of the record and the fit in a salary mass that has been lowered substantially since Messi’s departure and more that must be lowered: about 120 million only in the football section, read first team. Neither Leo’s salary nor half of it could be resumed.
The future file, although it lowers it a lot, will run into the rigor that Tebas and LaLiga observe regarding the Barça salary limit
The distrust of Thebes
The regulations of LaLiga complicate the transferbecause one of the articles establishes that, even if a footballer were to play for free at his club, which will not be the case, his impact on the salary bill would be the equivalent of half the salary of the previous season.
Javier Tebas, who exercises a control particularly punctilious with the Barçait will not be believed depending on which tab Messi receives, knowing the emoluments he received, his price in the world of football and the reference of the three Barça captains: between 33 and 52 million euros, according to some sources.
Barça owes him, according to some sources, 35 million in arrears. The money would not be a problem despite the fact that Messi’s demands have been known in the penultimate negotiation that he had with Josep Maria Bartomeu. “This has to be signed,” Leo allegedly said to his father and those around him when they dealt with Laporta and his board, clearly establishing his will to continue at Barça at any cost.
free return
“If he came back, it would be free, so it would be viable within my area, although I don’t have it in the budget. He is an icon of the club, this will always be his home, but it will be a technical decision,” Eduard Romeu explained on Wednesday in Catalunya Radio.
“Messi can’t leave football like this”, maintains Laporta. And “like this” is to retire without wearing the Barça shirt. The president feels indebted to Barcelona perhaps more than to Messi. Wounded, as everyone is, since on August 5, 2021, Lionel said: “This is not coming back. This is the end.”
