- The president of Argentina has intervened in the ongoing saga of Lionel Messi leaving FC Barcelona, imploring the star to return to his homeland and end his career at the childhood club, Newell’s Old Boys.
- “You are in our hearts and we have never seen you play in our country,” President Alberto Fernández said during an interview on Argentine news channel C5N.
- “Give us the pleasure of ending your career with Newell’s Old Boys, your club.”
- Messi went through Newell’s Old Boys academy as a child, before leaving to join Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy at the age of 13.
- It seems unlikely that Messi will return to Argentina with several years of career, and Newell’s almost certainly will not be able to pay his salary.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
The apparently imminent transfer of Lionel Messi away from FC Barcelona is so great that it has aroused the interest of the highest spheres of politics, and the president of Argentina made a personal intervention during the weekend during a television interview.
Alberto Fernández, the president of Messi’s home country, begged the star to return and asked him to consider playing the final years of his career for Newell’s Old Boys, the first professional club Messi signed to.
“You are in our hearts and we have never seen you play in our country,” Fernández said during an interview on Argentine news channel C5N, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
“Give us the pleasure of ending your career with Newell’s Old Boys, your club,” implored Messi, who is adored in his native land, and is probably the most famous exporter in the country since his colleague Diego Maradona.
However, Maradona is still a bigger player than Messi, Fernández said. “I never saw a player like Maradona,” he said in the interview, translated by Insider.
“I mean, I had a deep admiration for Maradona and honestly, that’s bigger than what I have for Messi,” he continued, saying that Messi has always been part of brilliant teams, while Maradona was often the only great player in his career. teams.
“It was his team, only against the world. On the other hand, the team in which Messi played is a team of great stars, right?”
Messi left Argentina when he was 13 years old, turned his back on Newell’s Old Boys, the biggest team in his hometown of Rosario, and moved to the famous La Masia academy in Barcelona.
Getty / TF Images
At 33, it seems unlikely that Messi is currently moving to Argentina, particularly given that he is being courted by some of the biggest teams in Europe, and that the financial rewards available in Argentina are small compared to the stars who play in. England, France. and Spain can do.
Currently, Messi is expected to sign for either Manchester City or Paris Saint Germain, the two clubs that could realistically afford his signing this season.
In recent days, Manchester City have become the favorites, in part because of Messi’s desire to reconnect with Pep Guardiola, the manager with whom he enjoyed his most successful years at Barcelona.
Messi and Guardiola helped lead Barcelona to three La Liga titles and two Champions League titles between 2008 and 2012, and Messi won the Ballon d’Or four times in that span.
Fernández, who is a fan of Argentinos Juniors from Buenos Aires, also praised Guardiola, saying: “Messi’s Barcelona was a unique team in football history, with Pep Guardiola as coach, with a [truly] Unique team in the history of world football “.
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