Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he hopes Lionel Messi returns to Barcelona and gets the send off he deserves.
A return to Barcelona is being talked about but the operation has been made tricky because of the club’s Financial Fair Play situation.
Messi’s contract at PSG comes to an end this summer, and the whole world is eagerly anticipating where the Argentine would go next.
Former Barcelona boss Guardiola, under whom Leo flourished, has advocated for his return to the club so that he can be given the send-off that he deserves.
Messi helped the current City boss to three La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and two Champions Leagues among a whole host of other trophies, before being effectively forced out in 2021 due to the club’s financial difficulties.
Speaking to ESPN Pep Guardiola said:
I am a member of Barcelona and I have my two seats in the stadium, and I just hope that one day we can see him off in the way he deserves, He was the greatest player of all time. What Barcelona achieved for ten or twelve years would not have been possible without him. Impossible. And I’m not talking about numbers, I’m talking about the impact on the game, the beauty, the aesthetics, the effectiveness… everything. Nobody would have thought it would end up like that. I know that president [Joan] Laporta, who I know how highly he esteems him, was referring to having such a great goodbye – he has helped to make our club, Barca, much bigger than when he arrived.
And when that difference is so big, you have to say goodbye to people. It was a very quick thing, he left because of a very difficult economic situation, for thousands of reasons that I’m not going to go into and that the protagonists know about and I don’t know about. But I hope on that day to go to my place, to be able to stand up, applaud him and say goodbye to him as Leo deserves. And I know that Joan is going to try, he’s going to do it and Leo too and he and his family are going to receive the love from all of us Barcelona fans, to be able to show him gratitude and respect for everything he has given to this club.”
After being permitted to return to team training despite an unsolicited trip to the Middle East, it remains to be seen whether the Argentine will be selected by Christophe Galter in PSG’s upcoming Ligue 1 match against Ajaccio on Saturday.
