Lionel Messi: Is it really time for him to leave Barcelona and where could he go?
As registered Barcelona player Philippe Coutinho scored Bayern Munich's 8th goal, Lionel Messi looked despairingly to the heavens, stunned into immobility and silence, a European campaign once again defined by humiliation. On the end of the biggest quarter-final defeat in Champions League history, in a neutral venue over 1000km from his footballing home, in front of nothing but empty seats and the power structure and finances of his boyhood club in tatters, it seemed almost fatal to ask; could this really be Messi's last dance in a Barcelona shirt?
A question that would have seemed absurd less than twelve months ago became a shocking reality earlier this week when arguably the best player of all time handed in a transfer request and expressed his desire to find a new club. And yet the traumatic scenes in Lisbon at the hands of eventual champions Bayern may not even be the the final chapter in this nightmarish denouement, as Messi's last appearance as a Barcelona player looks set to be in a courtroom disputing a clause in his contract which he believes allows him to leave the club for free, while the board of directors that have plagued his last five years at the Camp Nou insist that such a clause has expired and are holding out for a ludicrous €700m.
It was not supposed to end like this. Football's legends almost always have some sort of iconic moment tethered to their departure, whether it be Pele lifting the World Cup in his last appearance for Brazil, Ronaldo's third straight Champions League in his swansong at Real Madrid, Cruyff sacrificing his Netherlands career to take a stand against the Argentinian dictator Jorge Videla or even Zidane leaving Marco Materazzi in a heap on the floor in the World Cup final, perhaps the most iconic moment of all, all of the greats leave a lasting legacy in their wake, good or bad. An 8-2 defeat in which Messi was almost invisible does not qualify as one of these moments.
So why not stick it out, be the leading light in a regeneration of a side not long ago on the cusp of replicating the success of 'the Guardiola years'? An ageing squad is in need of an overhaul but Ronald Koeman has expressed his desire to do exactly that and with La Masia, arguably the most successful youth academy ever, producing promising starlets such as Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig, that night in Lisbon does not have to be goodbye for Messi. But his choice appears to be final. And even for an onlooker surveying the damage from the outside, it is easy to understand why.
The last time Barcelona won the Champions League in 2015, Messi was 27. In the five years since, the Argentine has had to watch the person with whom he is compared to most, Cristiano Ronaldo, lift three successive Champions League titles, taking the Portuguese's overall tally to 5, one ahead of Messi, as well as the added bonus of having won football's biggest club prize with two different sides after his 2008 success with Man Utd. Messi, meanwhile, feels like the prime years of his career have been wasted by a president and board of directors whose transfer policy has been incomprehensibly awful. Now 33, and with presidential elections not scheduled until mid-2021, a placeholder manager calling the shots and the playing staff awash with inflated wages and players the wrong side of 30, Messi's potential departure should not be likened to a (metaphorical) rat fleeing a sinking ship but rather a last-ditch attempt to swim away from the wreckage and back up to the surface.
Should he indeed be allowed to leave for free, there will be no shortage of suitors willing to give him the platform to equal and even surpass Ronaldo's Champions League haul. It has even been mooted that The Flea could join forces with CR7 at Juventus in what would certainly be an explosive if not entirely cohesive partnership, but The Old Lady's financial situation means they are currently more focussed on getting big-money players out the door rather than through it. Inter have been another Serie A club linked with securing the 6-time Ballon D'Or winner's signature although manager Antonio Conte recently scoffed at such suggestions and pointed to the amount of time and effort it had taken to sign Romelu Lukaku, never mind the best of all time. The Gulf-backed Manchester City and PSG certainly hold the financial might to attract Messi without necessarily the European track record to back it up, despite starting to knock very loudly on the door of Champions League glory. Reports of a move to the MLS and a return to Argentina seem far too premature for someone who registered more goals and assists than any other player in La Liga last season, but after half a decade of having to reluctantly contend with off-field politics and squabbling bureaucracies, his patience with the circus of top-tier football may have finally snapped.
Such a plethora of choices, and nothing seems to fit. The concept of Messi donning the colours of a club other than Barcelona is fundamentally jarring, as if the equilibrium of the football universe could somehow be irreversibly damaged. That the beautiful game has evolved into such a financial monster that the ultimate one-club man could be forced to abandon his home due to boardroom mismanagement should act as a stark warning for all those super-clubs blindly chasing European success with their chequebooks. For now, the world waits to see where Messi will go, and hopes he can re-write the final chapters of a truly iconic career.
A question that would have seemed absurd less than twelve months ago became a shocking reality earlier this week when arguably the best player of all time handed in a transfer request and expressed his desire to find a new club. And yet the traumatic scenes in Lisbon at the hands of eventual champions Bayern may not even be the the final chapter in this nightmarish denouement, as Messi's last appearance as a Barcelona player looks set to be in a courtroom disputing a clause in his contract which he believes allows him to leave the club for free, while the board of directors that have plagued his last five years at the Camp Nou insist that such a clause has expired and are holding out for a ludicrous €700m.
It was not supposed to end like this. Football's legends almost always have some sort of iconic moment tethered to their departure, whether it be Pele lifting the World Cup in his last appearance for Brazil, Ronaldo's third straight Champions League in his swansong at Real Madrid, Cruyff sacrificing his Netherlands career to take a stand against the Argentinian dictator Jorge Videla or even Zidane leaving Marco Materazzi in a heap on the floor in the World Cup final, perhaps the most iconic moment of all, all of the greats leave a lasting legacy in their wake, good or bad. An 8-2 defeat in which Messi was almost invisible does not qualify as one of these moments.
So why not stick it out, be the leading light in a regeneration of a side not long ago on the cusp of replicating the success of 'the Guardiola years'? An ageing squad is in need of an overhaul but Ronald Koeman has expressed his desire to do exactly that and with La Masia, arguably the most successful youth academy ever, producing promising starlets such as Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig, that night in Lisbon does not have to be goodbye for Messi. But his choice appears to be final. And even for an onlooker surveying the damage from the outside, it is easy to understand why.
The last time Barcelona won the Champions League in 2015, Messi was 27. In the five years since, the Argentine has had to watch the person with whom he is compared to most, Cristiano Ronaldo, lift three successive Champions League titles, taking the Portuguese's overall tally to 5, one ahead of Messi, as well as the added bonus of having won football's biggest club prize with two different sides after his 2008 success with Man Utd. Messi, meanwhile, feels like the prime years of his career have been wasted by a president and board of directors whose transfer policy has been incomprehensibly awful. Now 33, and with presidential elections not scheduled until mid-2021, a placeholder manager calling the shots and the playing staff awash with inflated wages and players the wrong side of 30, Messi's potential departure should not be likened to a (metaphorical) rat fleeing a sinking ship but rather a last-ditch attempt to swim away from the wreckage and back up to the surface.
Should he indeed be allowed to leave for free, there will be no shortage of suitors willing to give him the platform to equal and even surpass Ronaldo's Champions League haul. It has even been mooted that The Flea could join forces with CR7 at Juventus in what would certainly be an explosive if not entirely cohesive partnership, but The Old Lady's financial situation means they are currently more focussed on getting big-money players out the door rather than through it. Inter have been another Serie A club linked with securing the 6-time Ballon D'Or winner's signature although manager Antonio Conte recently scoffed at such suggestions and pointed to the amount of time and effort it had taken to sign Romelu Lukaku, never mind the best of all time. The Gulf-backed Manchester City and PSG certainly hold the financial might to attract Messi without necessarily the European track record to back it up, despite starting to knock very loudly on the door of Champions League glory. Reports of a move to the MLS and a return to Argentina seem far too premature for someone who registered more goals and assists than any other player in La Liga last season, but after half a decade of having to reluctantly contend with off-field politics and squabbling bureaucracies, his patience with the circus of top-tier football may have finally snapped.
Such a plethora of choices, and nothing seems to fit. The concept of Messi donning the colours of a club other than Barcelona is fundamentally jarring, as if the equilibrium of the football universe could somehow be irreversibly damaged. That the beautiful game has evolved into such a financial monster that the ultimate one-club man could be forced to abandon his home due to boardroom mismanagement should act as a stark warning for all those super-clubs blindly chasing European success with their chequebooks. For now, the world waits to see where Messi will go, and hopes he can re-write the final chapters of a truly iconic career.
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