Lionel Messi will demand that two players stay at FC Barcelona if he returns to the club this summer, according to a report.
Lionel Messi will demand that two players stay at FC Barcelona if he returns to the club this summer, according to a report.
During a press conference to mark two years since winning the election on Tuesday, Barca president Joan Laporta confirmed that he recently met with the player’s agent and father Jorge.
“I met Jorge Messi, yes,” Laporta confessed. “We talked about the World Cup and a tribute match for Leo. He’s at PSG right now, so I don’t want to speak about whether or not he could return.”
With Messi’s contract at the Parc des Princes expiring on June 30, however, hopes are harbored worldwide by Culers that Messi will once again don Blaugrana in 2023/2024 after leaving his boyhood club in tears in 2021.
It has been alleged by El Nacional that Laporta has made a “final offer” to Messi and his camp which would see him take home a minimum yearly salary of €200,000 and the expected €100 million that would be generated by the mentioned farewell match.
The same digital newspaper has said that were Messi to return, he would demand Ansu Fati leaves the club due to the way he “betrayed” his brother Rodrigo Messi when switching representatives to Portuguese superagent Jorge Mendes in 2020.
On Wednesday, it now carries a report claiming that Messi would also insist on two players whose futures at Camp Nou are up in the air continuing in the first team squad.
These are namely his close friends Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. While captain Busquets is out of contract at the same time Messi becomes a free man, he is currently unable to see eye-to-eye on a new deal with Laporta and looks set to leave for the MLS or Saudi Arabia at the end of the season.
Alba would like to stay, but as the current highest earner after Busquets on a reported €12 million ($12.6 million) a year, he could be pushed out of the exit door.
Of the reports, it is probably more likely true that Messi would prefer Busquets and Alba stay than put his foot down and insist on Fati leaving.
Even after Fati’s switch to Mendes’ representation, he and Messi continued to play well together in what was then Ronald Koeman’s first XI ahead of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner moving to the French capital.
