“We are ready to start a new stage,” Messi said upon his arrival in Miami, the most important city in Florida. This morning he will be presented as an Inter Miami player along with Sergio Busquets at the Drive Pink Stadium in an event that has been called ‘The Unveil’, (The revelation). In the first hours of his in the city of Florida, Messi was seen with his family in a supermarket near the apartment that he owns in the Porsche Tower, located in the luxurious urbanization of Sunny Isles Beach. Happy and satisfied to have been able to decide in time his next destination.
The exact opposite of what happened to him in Paris. Leaving Barcelona and changing a whole life was not something that entered the plans of the Argentine, who was living until the end of October in the central Parisian luxury hotel Le Royal Monceau.
The first year of adaptation was hard. The second did not have a happy ending. Criticized and booed by the fans, the Argentine had a hard time dealing with a dressing room full of stars in which he had to experience the discrepancies that existed between Mbappé and Neymar. For all he dismissed renewing a bond that was never emotional. In fact, one of the first things he did after finishing his contract was to stop following PSG on Instagram. In his account there was never a section of outstanding stories reserved for the French team. Yes, there are memories of his family, of the Argentine team and of course of FC Barcelona.
He never forgot his club. Whenever he could, he would watch the matches of his former team live and would travel to Barcelona on his days off to meet with his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, with his usual friends: Alba and Busquets.
Nor was he oblivious to the busy Blaugrana news. “I have spoken with Leo. He has congratulated me and we have joked, which is what we always do, ”Xavi acknowledged on the day of his presentation as coach. The coach was the person Messi chose to plan a possible return. He had already won it all. Including the World Cup. Inside him he felt that he still had a pending subject: say goodbye to his home.
It was last January, on Three Kings Day, when Messi made up his mind and called Xavi. “I would like to come back,” he told the coach and friend of his. “Are you sure?” Xavi asked him. After Messi’s yes, both talked about his sporting role. “Leo could play in several positions: false nine, winger, interior, even at the base coming to make the last pass”, Xavi later explained, happy and excited about his return. They also talked about the extra-sports fit of the Argentine in a Barça that after his departure has learned not only to play but also to live without his star. “We are a pineapple, a family”, Xavi always remembers.
Messi accepted his new role. He wanted to arrive to add and help the collective. And coach and footballer were summoned to continue talking. At the same time, Messi spoke with his father to ask him to start contacts with Barcelona. Jorge Messi and the president Joan Laporta saw each other in April. The cold phase that followed the goodbye of the Barcelona footballer as a result of a clash of egos and economic complications in the summer of 2020 required it. At the same time, Xavi was talking to his footballers to let them know that Messi’s return could be a reality. He even used that trick to try to convince Busquets to renew for another year.
In the offices Mateu Alemany, football director, worked on the feasibility plan with Messi. And Laporta, who always regretted the departure of the crack, also tried to approach positions with the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, who finally accepted the Argentine’s fit. “Fate makes you return where you should be. Messi is in love with Barcelona and we with him”, slipped the vice president Rafa Yuste. “Let us listen to fate if it is so wise. I wish he would come back”, said Xavi.
However, when the club obtained approval for the feasibility plan, things had already gone wrong. Messi, suspicious of his privacy and who only spoke with Xavi, sought discretion in the negotiations that he considers did not occur. Too many people from the club put into his mouth things that he did not say or events that had not occurred. He felt used. The ghosts of the past returned. In recent weeks he stopped talking to Xavi, who already suspected that his future was far from Barça.
At the beginning of June Jorge Messi met with Laporta at his home for just 25 minutes. He told him that Messi had chosen Miami. Despite the disappointment, at Barça they understood his decision. Of course, the mutual desire for a tribute at the new Spotify Camp Nou still stands.
