La Liga boss: I wanted Messi to end up at Barcelona. It would have been best for him, for me and for the club

Lionel Messi retired from PSG in the summer and his future was being discussed. His return to Barcelona was also on the table, but it didn’t happen because of the club’s financial problems. The La Liga boss wanted it to happen.

Lionel Messi belongs to Barcelona. Barcelona belongs to Messi. But in the summer of 2021, that link had to be broken. Former Catalan president Josep Maria Bartomeu had got the club into such financial trouble that there was no way to keep Messi.

The Argentine went to Paris, but the wheat didn’t blossom there either. In two years he became enemy number one of the fans, twice being eliminated in the Champions League eighth round and leaving the club as an outlaw.

That’s why there was talk of a return to Barcelona, where he is still seen as a god. At one point it looked like the transfer would work, but in the end it didn’t and Messi left for America.

The club’s president Joan Laporta then remarked, somewhat bitterly, that there was a lot of pressure on Messi that he didn’t want to take on anymore, so he preferred to go to MLS where he would play in the quiet.

“Leo Messi will not end his career at Barcelona because they couldn’t find an agreement,” said La Liga boss Javier Tebas. Messi said afterwards that he did not want to undergo the same uncertainty as two years ago.

“I wish he could finish his career in La Liga. It would be best for him, for me and for Barcelona,” the La Liga president added.

But that won’t happen and Tebas has to figure out how to make La Liga more attractive. Another star, Kylian Mbappé, did not arrive in the summer and decided to stay in Paris.

Source: Fabrizio Romano