Sport
Which team will Messi join if he leaves Barca?
It’s been a terribe couple of week’s for Barcelona. First they suffered a humiliating 8-2 Champions League loss at the hands of Bayern Munich. Gerard Pique demanded changes after the devastating defeat, with coach Quique Setien on his way out as a result. Things went from bad to worse on Tuesday as Barcelona confimed that Messi has told the club that he want to leave. So which team will Messi join if he leaves Barca?
Messi and Barcelona have been the perfect partnership for his whole professional career and it’s still now beyond the realms of possibility that he will end up staying. Here are the three main options available to Messi and how likely they are to happen.
Which team will Messi join if he leaves Barcelona?
Stay at Barcelona
There has been talk of Messi leaving Barcelona before, but he has always stayed at Camp Nou. If there is to be a substantial rebuild at Barca, there is nobody better to act as a foundation.
While Messi’s performances in the 2019-20 season did not quite hit the heights expected of him, he still scored more goals than anyone else in La Liga despite Barca missing out on the title.
Messi should still have enough years left at the top to be a cornerstone of Barca’s new era. The club captain, it is almost impossible to imagine Barcelona without Messi.
Barcelona would surely not want to let Messi go, but if a club was willing and able to pay his €700 million release clause that would leave the Nou Camp hierarchy with a decision to make.
Financial difficulties at Barca have been exacerbated by the Coronavirus crisis and various players have been made available for transfer in a bid to raise much-needed funds.
Selling Messi – even for a fee well under that enormous release clause – would give Barcelona the money needed to finance the rebuild their squad will need under Setien’s successor, the ex-Blaugrana star Ronald Koeman.
Messi is understandably be angry with the disgraceful team performance against Bayern, though it is arguable that the big gulf in class between the two squads made the result inevitable.
His anger would be nothing compared to that of the Barca fans if he is allowed to leave though. It still seems likely that he will be convinced to stay.
Likelihood: 6/10
Move to another European giant
If he does decide to leave Barca, which team will Messi join? There are only a handful of clubs who could afford the transfer fee needed, not to mention the forward’s gigantic wages. Realistically, the list of clubs who could potentially sign Messi perhaps stands at under five.
Paris Saint-Germain would be one and the chance to reunite with Neymar, with whom he formed a brilliant partnership at Barca, might be appealing for Messi. It would be a shame to see him play the last few years of his career in what is widely considered the weakest of Europe’s top-five leagues, though PSG and Lyon’s strong progress in this season’s Champions League suggests Ligue 1 is not as poor as some people think when they call it a “Farmers League”.
Messi could also reunite with Pep Guardiola, with whom he won two Champions League titles, by moving to Manchester City. Guardiola has always been adamant that Messi should stay at Barcelona but, if the player decides to move, City would surely be at the front of the queue. The club’s transfer record would have to be smashed, but with Financial Fair Play seemingly dead and buried following City’s court win earlier this year, money does not seem to be an issue.
Inter have also been linked with a move for Messi, but it is perhaps doubtful whether the Serie A club would be able to come up with the finances required, especially as they have already committed to paying the massive wages of Alexis Sanchez for the next few years.
Away from Europe, it would surely not feel right for Messi to make a lucrative move to somewhere like Qatar or America when he is still one of the best players in the world.
Likelihood: 3/10
Return to Argentina
Messi has long spoken of finishing his career in his homeland, with a return to Newell’s Old Boys giving him a chance to go back to his first club.
But last year Messi said in an interview that he would have to convince his family that living in Rosario would be an attractive proposition.
Messi’s extreme level of fame in Argentina might make it difficult for him to live anything like a normal life, so it seems unlikely that signing for Newell’s Old Boys could happen.
And with Messi only recently celebrating his 33rd birthday, it is surely too early to be considering such a move – regardless of his unhappiness at Barcelona right now.
Likelihood: 1/10
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