6/10/2022–|Last update: 6/10/202209:03 PM (Mecca)
Argentine star Lionel Messi announced Thursday that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, scheduled for November 20 and December 18, will “certainly” be his last participation in the World Cup finals.
“This is my last World Cup,” the 35-year-old Paris Saint-Germain captain said in an interview with the Argentine channel ESPN. “Of course. I feel good, physically. I had a very good preparatory season this year, which is… What I couldn’t do last year, it was necessary to get to where I am, in a good mental state and with a lot of hope.”
On the other hand, Barcelona’s financial vice president, Edward Romeo, confirmed that Messi, who left Catalonia for French Saint-Germain in 2021 after a 20-year career, “is an addition to Barcelona and the doors are open for him” to return.
When asked about the possibility of the best player in the world returning 7 times during the presentation of the 2022-2023 budget and the closing of the previous year, Romeo said, “This was said many times, the president (Joan Laporta) said it, and I said it myself; Leo Messi is an addition to Barcelona and the club’s doors are open in front of him.” .
Asked if the return of the 35-year-old was financially feasible for Barcelona, he replied with a smile: “We know how to work miracles.”
And he added, “It is a matter of sports management, and if the sports administration decides that, we will work for this goal.”
Iconic.
Mesmeric.
Messi. #UCL pic.twitter.com/kOganTxGnC— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 24, 2019
President Laporta had hinted on July 29 that Barcelona would not abandon the idea of seeing Messi wearing the club’s shirt again in the future, noting that “Messi’s time at Barcelona did not end the way we all wanted it to. It ended up being conditioned for economic reasons.” “.
“I think Barcelona owes it morally to Leo Messi. We would like to end his career in the Barcelona shirt with applause in all stadiums and wherever he goes,” explaining that his words are just “wishes, there is nothing written.”
Laporta’s call for the return of the little “flea” came after some Spanish media reported that the current coach and former Barcelona midfielder, Xavi Hernandez, asked the club’s management to study the possibility of returning the Argentine linked to a contract with the Parisian capital club until June 2023.
A Parisian goal was the first to sign Messi #Champions League #beINUCL pic.twitter.com/9LZ3eUsWE5
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) October 5, 2022
After a modest first season (2020-2021) for Messi in Paris, where he only scored 11 goals in 34 games, the Argentine dusted his departure from Catalonia at the beginning of the current season (2023-2022) by scoring 8 goals, the last of which was against Benfica in a 1-1 draw. In the third round of the group stage of the Champions League on Wednesday, he passed 8 decisive balls in 13 matches in all competitions.