Lionel Messi not leaving Barcelona for MLS anytime soon

Lionel Messi’s comments in a year-end interview with Spanish TV channel La Sexta continue to resonate. On January 1, Messi became free to negotiate a new deal with any non-Spanish team, although during the interview he said he would wait until the end of the 2021 season before deciding on his future.

Despite the commitment until June, it was a commentary on the dream of playing in the United States that made headlines.

Initial speculation quickly turned to which MLS team might be interested – and have the resources – to sign Messi. Just as history was showing signs of death, the Messi-MLS bond was resurrected in a slightly different form.

The transfer has been attributed to a candidate for Barcelona’s upcoming presidential election, Xavi Vilajoana. Spanish daily AS claims Vilajoana has a clever plan to fulfill Messi’s wish in MLS while extending his professional life at Barcelona. Vilajoana’s plan is for Barcelona to buy an MLS franchise and Messi to move there when he’s ready to leave La Liga.

Both possibilities are making headlines, but there are compelling reasons why Messi-to-MLS won’t be performing anytime soon, if at all.

Let’s take a look at both possibilities.

As part of the first, Messi would play his current contract which ends in June 2021 and become free to sign with an MLS team. Why is this unlikely?

Key things to consider are Messi’s age and his current rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo. In June, Messi will be 34 – less than six months older than Ronaldo when he moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018.

Ronaldo chose another big challenge by joining Juventus in Serie A. If Messi moves at the end of his contract, he needs to ‘match’ Ronaldo’s move rather than go for the easier pastures of MLS.

To do otherwise would leave Messi open to accusations of taking the easy way out and seeing any future success downgraded. Messi and Ronaldo haven’t tackled each other with hammer and tongs in the past 15 seasons so that one can step back in their still productive years.

The Vilajoana pattern is even less likely. The idea is blind to history, the current MLS market and the economic reality of Barcelona’s finances.

In 2008, Barcelona announced that they were applying for an MLS franchise for Miami, but less than six months later the proposal was dropped. This was at a time when a franchise could cost around $ 30 million.

Expansion fees would now cost almost 10 times as much, and MLS doesn’t offer discounts in Barcelona as far as I know. Moreover, MLS would face a backlash from the currently expanding markets if they allowed Barcelona to jump the queue.

Then there’s the fact that Barcelona are already sinking into red ink with a ridiculously high wage bill, costs related to Covid-19 and funding for Camp Nou expansion, to name a few. of their problems.

To think that Barcelona can commit an extra $ 300million and more just to give Lionel Messi a place to play in a few years makes no sense. Rather than attracting voters to Vilajoana’s cause, he is more likely to question his suitability for the job.

Flash points Messi

# 1 After Sporting coach Ernesto Valverde was fired in January, sporting director Eric Abidal sought to blame the Barcelona players for Valverde’s disappearance.

Messi quickly took the bait and retaliated by accusing Abidal of corrupting the reputation of the players and demanding that he name names.

He also strongly suggested that rather than blaming others, Abidal should take a look at his own decisions and the role they played in the coach’s dismissal.

Abidal was fired in August.

# 2 Days after Barcelona’s 8-2 humiliation by Bayern Munich in August, Messi sent a formal request to leave the club. Messi tried to invoke a clause that allowed him to terminate his contract and move to another team for free.

The clause required Messi to notify Barcelona before May 31, but the player and his father – also his agent – claimed that due to Covid-19 and the resulting season extension, the deadline should have been reset to August 31.

La Liga officials disagreed with Messi’s unilateral rewording of the clause and argued Messi’s contract until summer 2021 was still valid, as was the buyout clause.

Messi’s father half-heartedly challenged the league’s decision before Messi publicly surrendered, saying he was unwilling to take his case to court and as such he would remain a Barcelona player for the season. 2020/21.

# 3 At the end of September, Messi’s goal partner Luis Suarez was shown the door and left to join Atletico Madrid in a fire sale deal. Messi was once again extremely critical of Barcelona’s management saying that “at this point nothing surprises me more”.