The notion that Lionel Messi might stay at Barcelona is getting more and more unlikely, and quotes recently attributed to him might go some way to explaining why he apparently wants a move to Manchester City.
The Argentinian looked completely drained at the end of Barca’s horrific 8-2 defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Though the Catalans had lost disappointingly in European football’s premier competition against both Roma and Liverpool, Messi’s body language against Bayern was different and suggested he’d had enough.
With the team around him unable to muster up decent performances on a weekly basis, and deals being done such as the Arthur Melo/Miralem Pjanic swap which made no sense other then financial, the chances of silverware both on a personal and club level were getting slimmer.
“The call (to Guardiola) happened, and Messi said to Pep: ‘I want to win the next two Ballon d’Or awards,'” Leo was quoted as saying by Cristobal Soria on the El Chiringuito de Jugones’ programme, cited by MARCA.
“‘And I can only do that with you.’ This is the killer phrase that Messi used.”
Messi has potentially two or three years left at the top of the game, and it’s understandable why he would want to move given that it would take Barca at least that long to get anywhere close to having a team that will challenge for European honours again.
Barca president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, might have something to say about that, but his position appears to be weakening by the day.