Leo Messi’s priority is to return to FC Barcelona. To start laying the groundwork for his possible return, yesterday morning Jorge Messi, the player’s father and agent, met with president Joan Laporta at the house of the top Barcelona official, as confirmed by the images captured by journalist Toni Juanmartà . The meeting lasted half an hour and, when he left, Jorge Messi acknowledged that his son’s wish is to wear the Barcelona shirt again. “Leo wants to return to Barça and I would love to,” he said as he headed to the offices of the Leo Messi Foundation, located just a minute’s walk from Laporta’s attic.
Messi’s will, especially after winning the World Cup in Qatar, is to continue playing competitive football like European football at least until the 2024 Copa America, and even a little more. This scenario is an important card for Barça’s interests to combat the offers it has from Saudi Arabia and Inter de Miami. In the Argentinian’s desire to return to Barcelona there is also the sentimental value of wearing the shirt with which he won everything, without forgetting the comfort that it would be for the family to return to their life in Castelldefels, where they maintain the family home they have often gone to every time PSG gave their footballers days off. On Saturday, the Parisian entity officially announced that Messi will not renew with the French club.
A few days ago, this newspaper already explained that FC Barcelona did not consider the signing of Messi as lost. They assured that they were confident that there would be a meeting to bring their positions closer and that Messi would not decide until he spoke with them. The organization has plenty of reasons to try to block Messi’s return. In the institutional sphere, he would gain weight, and Laporta would cease to be the president who dispensed with the best footballer in the world. In the commercial field, his return would help to better endure the year at Montjuïc, the stage where Messi made his debut with Barça in an official match on October 16, 2004. Messi would also generate a series of revenues at the box office and in other complicated concepts to achieve without their presence, such as sponsorships.
The Argentine has known for months the plan outlined by Barcelona to get him back. He knows that, due to the complicated financial situation that the club is going through, the financial proposal does not correspond in any case to the status of the current The Best and world champion with Argentina. He also knows that his registration in LaLiga depends on the fact that the board chaired by Javier Tebas approves the viability plan that Barcelona presented at the end of April. This plan foresees the reduction of 15 percent of ordinary expenses in two years (that is to say to save about 150 million euros in the budget of the professional sections and in salaries of the club’s staff) and reduce 120 million euros of wage bill this season, including sales of footballers.
Precisely the approval of LaLiga was discussed in the meeting between Jorge Messi and Laporta. The Barcelona president asked for patience from Jorge Messi, who wanted to know first hand if LaLiga would authorize the plan. Right now, Barcelona can have an idea of ​​how far they can go in their offer, since they have been told by LaLiga that today they will obtain authorization for the feasibility plan.
Despite the fact that they will approve it, the employers insist that Barça continues with financial fair play. If they don’t manage to lighten the expected wage bill, it will be impossible for him to return to the 1-1 rule (for every salary that goes out, an equal one can come in) and sign normally in the summer. So they can only invest 40 percent of the savings they generate in signings.
To start activating the plan, the intention of the coach, Xavi Hernández, is to start communicating the casualties when the team returns from Japan after playing today (12.30 Peninsular time) the friendly match against Vissel Kobe. Ansu Fati is one of the names. There may be at least two more sales. For his part, coach Xavi Hernández was “expecting and excited” with the Argentine’s arrival. “I would love for him to return to Barça. He knows because we talked about it. The ideal scenario would be to have him and a defensive pivot”, explained the coach, who also said that this week could be definitive.
Beyond Barcelona’s interest, if something has been made clear by sources close to the player, it is that the only formal proposal they have on the table is that of Saudi Arabia, although in the last few hours Inter Miami has also accelerated to sign the Argentine.
