700 million divorce between Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona

Did Lionel Messi play his last game for Barcelona?
Who wants to sign Lionel Messi?

Any club in the world would surely jump at the chance to recruit the Argentinean superstar.

But his situation is complicated and realistically only a small number of candidates have a chance of getting his signature.

Let’s look at Messi’s options.

Manchester beckons?

“He’s the best player I’ve ever seen” – Pep Guardiola led Messi to Barcelona with devastating effect.
Messi has been an avid follower of English soccer for many years and has a solid knowledge of the Premier League, if only because two of his closest friends – Sergio Aguero and Cesc Fabregas – have spent so long in England.

There is certainly a huge logic to the idea that he will join Manchester City. First of all for Pep Guardiola, of course, but also for the key backstage staff of Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, who were also previously at his side in Barcelona.

The fact that City is one of the few teams capable of meeting his salary expectations also helps, and when it comes to soccer, Messi knows that Guardiola would develop a team framework that would allow him to excel – something he has lacked in Barcelona in recent years.

According to reports in Spain, however, City could face serious competition from the region, with the national TV channel Cuatro saying Tuesday afternoon that Manchester United was seriously trying to attract the Argentinean.

Some fans may scoff at this idea given United’s recent reputation for its mistake in the transfer market, but consider this: in March, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers soccer team made headlines by signing veteran quarterback Tom Brady, one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

The owners of Tampa? The Glazer family. When they get fat, they get really fat.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal may also have a bold bid in mind, and cultural concerns that Messi’s family would have difficulty adjusting to life in England are mitigated by the fact that his children already attend a British school on the outskirts of Barcelona.

European heavyweights?

Messi still wants another Champions League – a trophy he hasn’t won since 2015.
Elsewhere in Europe, the defeated Champions League finalists, Paris St-Germain, may conclude that their best chance to do better next year would be to take Messi – and, like City, they have the financial resources to outbid anyone.

This idea would appeal to Messi because it would allow him to team up again with Neymar, whose departure from Barcelona in 2017 is one of the many sources of the Argentinian’s discontent with his current club.

The other European finalists who lost last week, Inter Milan, could also be in the running. The Chinese owners of the Nerazzurri, Suning Holdings, are desperate to end Juventus’ nine-year hold on Serie A, and club president Steven Zhang is reportedly already having hopeful talks with Messi representatives.

Those hopes will have been seriously boosted by Tuesday’s developments, and the prospect of Messi facing Cristiano Ronaldo again could easily become a reality.

Another potential contender, however, can be ruled out: recent reports that Real Madrid had made an approach were quickly crushed by Messi’s camp, and this option is considered a total non-starter, regardless of his level of anger towards Barça.

Going home or venturing east?

Xavi, who is the manager of the Qatari Al Sadd team, spent 11 years with Messi in Barcelona.
The romantic option would be for Messi to return to Argentina and join his hometown club in Rosario, the Old Boys of Newell.

Messi has regularly stated that he would ideally like to play again for his Newell’s children’s club before retiring, but also added that safety concerns regarding the safety of his three young children would make him reluctant to make that move in the current climate.

Joining Newell would also represent a significant drop in playing standards, and Messi’s belief that he can still perform near his peak will almost certainly prevent him from moving on to anything other than an elite league.

Similarly, we can probably rule out the idea of Messi going to Asia. His former Barça team-mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta provide glowing reports of their respective experiences in Qatar and Japan, but the big difference is that the midfielders are supporting the team’s development.

Going home or venturing east?

Xavi, who is the manager of the Qatari Al Sadd team, spent 11 years with Messi in Barcelona.
The romantic option would be for Messi to return to Argentina and join his hometown club in Rosario, the Old Boys of Newell.

Messi has regularly stated that he would ideally like to play again for his Newell’s children’s club before retiring, but also added that safety concerns regarding the safety of his three young children would make him reluctant to make that move in the current climate.

Joining Newell would also represent a significant drop in playing standards, and Messi’s belief that he can still perform near his peak will almost certainly prevent him from moving on to anything other than an elite league.

Similarly, we can probably rule out the idea of Messi going to Asia. His former Barça team-mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta provide glowing reports of their respective experiences in Qatar and Japan, but the big difference is that the midfielders were, by their own admission, declining forces when they left Nou’s camp.

Messi, on the other hand, believes that he can still perform at the highest level and, more importantly, aspires to another Champions League crown after years of frustration in this competition with Barça.

Staying with Barça?

Although his determination to leave Barcelona seems completely genuine, we cannot totally rule out the option that Messi will eventually stay with his current club.

Tuesday’s statement could be a radical attempt of last resort to expel the biggest source of his grievances, club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Even if it fails, Bartomeu’s taste for legal battles (there are countless of them) could well lead him to stand firm, insisting that Messi can only leave if another club complies with his 700 million euro buyout clause and defying the courts to let him go for nothing.

In that case, we could face – for any soccer fan – the worst-case scenario: Messi does not play at all in the 2020-2021 campaign.

Source Image:  https://pixabay.com