Lionel Messi: Barcelona’s presidential candidate, Víctor Font, wants to move on beyond his professional career | Football news

Lionel Messi must remain at Barcelona so that he can lead the team for the rest of his career and play a strategic role when he retires, the club’s presidential candidate Victor Font has said.

Barça’s six-time Player of the Year and all-time top scorer came close to leaving the Catalans in August after his relationship with then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu deteriorated.

But the Argentine can leave the club, where he has spent his entire career, for free at the end of this season unless he signs a new contract before the end of June.

Font, who was part of a campaign against Bartomeu that led him to resign in October, is the favorite to win the January 24 election and believes the highest paid player in the world can be convinced to stay at Camp Nou.

“When you’re lucky enough to have the best player in the world on your team, you need to retain that talent,” said Font, a 48-year-old telecommunications entrepreneur.

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“If Messi goes to a competitor we will not find an alternative easily, since there is no alternative to Messi. That is why it is essential to retain him in the short term.”

“But for us the partnership between Messi and Barça is a strategic relationship and we want to make sure we create the right conditions for Messi to play a role at the club even after his retirement. Messi could contribute a lot of ideas.”

Font has been planning a presidential career for seven years and has chosen the great Barça midfielder Xavi to lead the team as long-term general manager as well as coach.

Xavi, whose intricate passing fueled Messi’s incredible goals for 11 years and helped the pair win seven La Liga titles and four Champions League titles with Barça, is part of Font’s strategy to ensure the Argentine remains.

“Messi needs to be convinced that we have a competitive and winning project, and Xavi can play a decisive role for us to do so,” Font said.

“Xavi’s credibility and knowledge of football is adequate to convince someone like Messi. They are friends, they know each other, they trust each other and that will be key.”

If he wins the election, Font will take over a club with the highest payroll in world football. However, the club is in a deep financial crisis, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that has wiped out revenue from ticket sales, merchandising and tourism.

Barça’s latest accounts showed a loss of 97 million euros (£ 87 million), while its total net debt more than doubled to 488 million euros.

But Font believes Messi’s love for Barcelona, ​​which he joined at age 13, runs so deep that he could lower his salary demands to stay.

“All the clubs are in economic crisis [due to the pandemic] and everyone should adjust their expectations, “he added.

“The good thing about Messi is that he loves the club, like all of us, and I’m sure he is ready to take a long-term perspective and make a contribution so that the club can manage the short term in the best possible way.

“When you have someone like Messi who loves the club and who the club wants to retain for many years, you have the framework to regenerate and build a winning team.”

‘The League could face the departure of Messi’

La Liga president Javier Tebas says, although he wants Messi to remain at Barcelona, ​​that the league could cope with his defeat.

Tebas also criticized Manchester City, who were eager to sign Messi when he wanted to leave the Camp Nou this summer, during a presentation with journalists.

He said: “We would prefer Messi to stay in La Liga but (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Neymar left and we haven’t noticed any difference. We are ready.

“It seems that the only Premier League club talking about signing Messi is Manchester City. I’m not very concerned about them. I have criticized what they do so many times. Doing it one more time makes no difference.”