Hard to believe but fax of Leo’s exit are all true
TALK about bombshell news. Not the revelation Lionel Messi wants to leave Barcelona – the discovery the guy on about 900 grand a week still uses a fax machine.
Aye, apparently he faxed Nou Camp chiefs this week with his transfer request. Ask any kid born this century what one of those things are and they’d probably look at you like you were from Mars.
Perhaps Messi bought his house off Andoni Zubizarreta and found it in the loft but, either way, it looks like the wee man is finally for the off.
We’ve been here before, mind you. Every couple of years you get the Messi going here, there and everywhere tales and it always ended up with him getting another wedge piled on top of his wage packet.
This time it seems real though – and there’s something sad about it.
Messi and Barcelona went together like pie and Bovril, chips and curry sauce, Scottish football and self interest. They’ve been inseparable and it just doesn’t feel right even thinking about him turning out for another side.
The usual suspects are Manchester City and PSG. Not exactly fairystory teams.
Listen, Barcelona are hardly a beacon of light for all that is wholesome in football either. That lot have racked more debt than Mrs G with a Frasers store card and it allowed them to be the superpower of the 2010s.
But there is an allure around Barcelona, even if it’s a little misty-eyed. They’ve been mesmerising, playing a brand of football that looks like a different sport to what we witness in this country. Messi was at the heart of it. He can do things the mere mortals can only dream about and he did so in one of the global game’s greatest cathedrals.
No harm to Man City but it would tarnish the legacy of the great men to see him running around in sky blue.
PSG are brilliant to watch but the whole ‘owned by a country with questionable human rights records’ is a tough one to chew on.
But where does he go? Nowhere will sit right.
It’ll be like George Best rolling up at Hibs. Okay, Messi wouldn’t be going AWOL on the eve of games or turning up half cut before skinning Falkirk but you know what I mean.
Most superstars end up with a few late moves
Messi and Barca went together like pie and Bovril, chips and curry sauce
in their career that are eventually forgotten.
David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard, Xavi, Mo Johnston etc. All had forgotten spells at clubs but Messi was meant to be different.
There’s some comfort to be taken from seeing old pal Cristiano Ronaldo doing the unthinkable and leaving Real Madrid. He’s done the business at Juventus and hasn’t diminished his reputation.
No doubt Messi will do the same and we’ll get to enjoy him for a little longer. In fact, get him to Juve, imagine seeing him teaming up with CR7...
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