After Barcelona announced on Tuesday that Lionel Messi had reported that he wanted to leave the club, several European teams begin to run as the Argentine star’s future destination.
The bookmakers point to the alleged conversation between Messi and Pep Guardiola, current Manchester City coach and who led him for several years at Barca.
There is also talk of the possibility of Leo finishing at Juventus, along with his until recently great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, or even at Paris St. Germain, where he would again share costumes with Neymar Jr., with whom he won the last Champions League in 2015.
The Chinese owners of Inter Milan also see in the Argentine star passport to return to a powerhouse in Europe.
But, despite the inevitable upheaval, it is not yet certain that ‘La Pulga’ will leave the club he arrived at in 2001, at just 13 years old.
The Argentine insists that a clause of his contract will allow him to leave the blue entity for free. The club, however, maintains that this clause has expired and that the team that wants to take over its services must pay the 700 million euros that contractually bind to Barca.
If Barcelona gets away with it, many of the clubs that aspire to hire the striker would fall off the bidding, especially considering that, in addition to the 700 million euros, the new team should take care of the million euros per week that the ’10’ asks for.
Finance aside, there is another question to be resolved, perhaps the most important: Is Leo’s football in decline?
Although Messi has lifted more than 30 trophies with the Barca shirt, his last season’s numbers are far from the record numbers for other years.
The Argentine scored 31 goals, something that in any other footballer represents a very good governance. But Messi knows what it’s like to score 79 scores in a single campaign, not in vain is the club’s top gunner (634) and the only footballer who has achieved more than 40 scores over 10 consecutive seasons.
Despite this, a change of air could help the still captain regain his best form. The question is where.
Messi has already said that he likes the Premier League and therefore the City of Guardiola – which still does not succeed in Europe – would be the most logical destination.
