Argentinian football sensation and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi appears to have made a quick reverse on his recent pronouncements about staying and retiring for good with his team.
He apparently insinuated during the Ballon d’Or event in Zurich on January 12, moments after arch-rival Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid lifted the ‘World Footballer of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year, that he is no longer sure where he will be playing next year, reports Yahoo! Sports from an AFP report.
Messi has won the award for four consecutive years since 2009 so seeing Ronaldo lifting the trophy for the second year in a row in the glittering FIFA awarding ceremony was not much of an issue to the Argentinian forward.
Unfounded speculations
Messi’s statement at the Ballon d’Or was also a complete turnaround from his comments made the day before that he was not planning to leave Barcelona and that speculations of him going to Chelsea or Manchester United were all lies.
Football’s most popular player added that he admits to saying that he would finish his career at Barcelona and then to Newell’s, his hometown football club in Argentina, but now he is no longer sure where he will be playing next year.
He even quoted Ronaldo in defense of his latest statement when he mentioned that the Real Madrid star said that football has many twists and anything can happen.
Internal squabble?
Reports of Messi planning to leave the Barcelona football club surfaced after the Argentinian had an argument with Barcelona’s manager Luis Enrique and the club’s board following an excellent performance in Barcelona’s 3-1 victory over Spanish champions Atletico Madrid last January 11.
He was quoted as saying during a TV interview after the match that he never demanded anything to ensure that he stays in Barcelona because he had no intention of leaving the team in the first place.
The relationship of Messi and Enrique has soured after the Argentinian forward was benched for the 1-0 defeat of the team to Real Sociedad a week earlier. Rumors of Messi’s displeasure and plans to leave the team heightened further when he missed the first training session after the match with Real Sociedad, averring that he was suffering from a stomach bug.
Messi’s latest pronouncement could generate interests on some cash-rich English Premier League teams. Manchester United is said to be very interested in getting Messi because it has the financial capability to do so. The team can buy out Messi’s 250 million Euros ($296 million) contract without going aboveboard the UEFA’s financial fair play guidelines.
Including Messi’s yearly salary of 20 miilion Euros ($23.6 million), the cost of acquiring the Argentinian football superstar for a five-year contract would result to a buyout of 350 million Euros ($4.12 billion), which would be the highest buyout ever in football or any sports for that matter.