Messi’s dad drops Barca hint?
PARIS – Lionel Messi’s father, who also acts as his agent, has caused a stir with his latest comment about his son’s playing future.
The Argentine has been urged by Dani Alves and other former Blaugrana teammates of his a number of times this season to make a return to Barcelona, after an inconsistent debut campaign in Paris.
The calls for the Argentine to return to Spain come after Messi’s shock exit from the Camp Nou in August last year, when the LaLiga side’s financial woes cost them the chance to renew his deal with the club.
As a result of the South American’s inability to replicate the numbers he had produced at Barca for PSG, and the French club’s humiliating exit from the UEFA Champions League at the round of 16 stage, a number of the PSG fanbase have taken to booing and whistling at the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner over the past couple of months, a far cry from the treatment the 34-year-old received in Catalonia.
As such, while there have been reports that the playmaker intends to see out his contract, which expires in June 2023, despite an underwhelming first season in Paris on and off the pitch, his father and agent Jorge Messi has now seemingly suggested that a return to the Blaugrana could yet be on the cards.
“I hope it (happens), some day,” he said on Twitch channel Jijantes FC when asked if he would like his son to return to Barca.
Meanwhile, Barcelona President Joan Laporta, who had in March quashed talks that Messi could be set for a return to Catalonia, also fuelled speculation he could be a Blaugrana player once again over the weekend, when Deportes Cuatro journalist David Ibanez asked him if he would like to see the player at the Camp Nou again.
“Yes, of course I would like it,” he answered, according to Barca Universal.