For so many at Barcelona, the 2019-20 season represented a step too far. In hindsight, changes should’ve certainly happened sooner, but you can’t begrudge footballers for desperately clinging to the Blaugrana shirt (and their lavish contracts), as your career is only on a downward trajectory after playing in front of 100,000 at the Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona at some point, that is a fact. When he leaves is still up for debate. What won’t be much of a debate is that Barcelona’s attack will suffer tremendously from the Argentine’s departure.
It’s a no-brainer that a team won’t score as often after the best attacking player leaves. The real question is how bad will it get? Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid gives a good idea of what could happen with Barcelona in terms of offense.
In the wake of Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich, club president Josep Maria Bartomeu spoke of “a disaster” that necessitated “some decisions” because “this isn’t the Barça that we believe in.”
The Lionel Messi transfer saga has provided the excitement we've all craved during a quiet transfer window, as every club has hope of signing the world's best player (no, he's not going to MLS).
Lionel Messi is desperate to get out of Barcelona. His hope of leaving on a free transfer is looking more and more like fantasy after LaLiga’s latest statement ruling his contract is still valid and a club will have to pay $833 million to trigger his release clause.
LaLiga on Sunday released a statement saying Lionel Messi's Barcelona contract was still valid, days after his shock announcement that he wants to leave the club and hours after he failed to attend a pre-season medical.
Messi's failure to show for his medical underlined the 33-year-old's determination to leave the club he has been with throughout his career.
MADRID — Lionel Messi will not take a planned preseason coronavirus test on Sunday or return to training on Monday after his shock announcement earlier this week that he wants to leave Barcelona, Spanish media reported on Saturday.
Spanish sports paper Marca said Messi was "going to war" with his lifelong club by making the decision.
La Vanguardia reported Messi will send another burofax, the method by which he told the club he wanted to leave, to inform them of his decision not to join his teammates for the first training session under new coach Ronald Koeman.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp says he would be interested in adding Barcelona captain Lionel Messi to his Premier League-winning squad but there is no chance it would happen because of the astronomical amount of money involved.
Messi stunned world soccer earlier this week when he expressed his desire to leave Barcelona after nearly two decades with the Catalan club.