Lionel Messi: Sudden Barcelona exit ‘not how I imagined it’

Inter Miami star Lionel Messi admitted he didn’t imagine a sudden Barcelona exit when he couldn’t be retained by the club due to La Liga financial rules. The Argentine spent 17 years at the iconic club after he joined as an 18-year-old young boy and left as one of the greatest football players to have embraced the game.

Messi had a stellar career at Barcelona as he played 778 matches in which he scored a record number of 672 goals and provided an astonishing 305 assists. The star forward signed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain after playing for Barcelona.

Messi’s comments come a day after he turned up unexpectedly at Spotify Camp Nou to visit the stadium.

“We miss Barcelona a lot,” Messi told Diario Sport. “With the kids, continuously, and my wife, we speak about things in Barcelona. The idea is to return there to live. We have our house there, everything, so that’s what we want.”

“I am really looking forward to getting back to the stadium when it’s finished because I moved to Paris and I never returned to Camp Nou,” he had told Sport in the interview, which was conducted in Miami before the weekend visit.

“And then Barça moved to [the Olympic Stadium in] Montjuïc. It will be strange to go back and see it because the last time I saw it was a long time ago. It will be emotional to get back there and remember everything that was.”

Messi admitted it was a strange feeling when he left Barcelona, as he played behind closed doors due to COVID-19.

“It’s a strange feeling after leaving, because of how it all happened, because I spent my final seasons there playing without fans due to the pandemic,” he said. “After spending all my life there, I didn’t leave as I had dreamed of.

“I imagined myself spending my whole career in Europe in Barcelona and then coming here [to Miami], as I did, because that was my plan. It was what I wanted. So, my goodbye was a little strange, because of the situation.”