Messi and Barcelona deserved a better ending than this
I know there are plenty of Messi fans here who also support Barcelona. I’m a São Paulo FC supporter, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Barça because of 1992, Fenômeno and Ronaldinho, La Masia, Cruyff and the whole idea of MÉS QUE UN CLUB. That’s why I find it strange that a story like Messi and Barcelona ended the way it did, and that people almost seem to accept it as normal.
I understand those who defend Laporta for his work after Bartomeu, and I know football isn’t charity. Messi himself is a business and a massive global brand. But that’s precisely why I wonder: was it really impossible to plan one final season, maybe two if he was still performing? We’re talking about someone who spent more than 20 years there, scored 672 goals and left crying at a press conference because the club couldn’t register him. In 2023 he wanted to return, but once again there were no guarantees. And if money were really the priority, he could simply have gone to Saudi Arabia...
Barcelona found room over the years for Braithwaite, Depay, Aubameyang, Ferran Torres and many others. Was finding a way to accommodate Messi for one last season really impossible? Imagine the farewell commercially too: his last Camp Nou, his final visit to stadiums across Spain, shirts, sponsors, worldwide audiences, a documentary. I’m Brazilian. Plenty of Brazilians hate Argentina in football, yet we saw Brazilians going to the Maracanã just to watch Messi and millions rooting for him in World Cups. That’s how far his appeal goes.
Now he’s 39. I’m not asking Barcelona to pretend it’s 2012 or expect Messi to carry the team. Football has seen old legends return before. Beckham came back to Europe from MLS. Ibrahimović returned to Milan at 38. Why couldn’t arguably the greatest player-club relationship ever have its own final chapter??
That’s my biggest issue with Laporta. Not Messi leaving in 2021, because the financial problems were real, but treating that ending as something permanent. Messi doesn’t need Barcelona to prove anything, and Barcelona will remain a giant without him. No player is bigger than the club. But no president is bigger than its history or its supporters either.
One of football’s greatest stories shouldn’t end with Messi crying at a press conference!!!
It doesn’t need another Champions League. It doesn’t even need Messi as an undisputed starter...
It just deserves to end on the pitch.