The Fading of a Star

February 09, 2020
Sport

Not even a month later, that uncertainty has crystallized into something close to, something approaching, crisis. First, Eric Ábidal, Messi’s former teammate and now Barcelona’s sporting director, suggested the playing squad had essentially downed tools to bring about Ernesto Valverde’s dismissal. Then Messi, on Instagram, struck back, accusing Abidal of “throwing dirt” at the squad. Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barcelona’s president, had to step in to cool tempers.

Even if that works in the short term, the long term is different. The timing, for Barcelona, is awful. Messi has always said that he wants to end his career at the only club he has ever played for. (His previous desire, to return to Argentina to play for Newell’s Old Boys, his boyhood club, seems to have fallen by the wayside.)

Now, though, he is just a few months away from being able to make a clean break, and Barcelona is falling apart around him. And yet, even if he should choose to leave, it is oddly hard to see where he might go.

Only a handful of elite teams could afford his salary: P.S.G., Manchester City, and, at a push, maybe Manchester United and Internazionale. Is 32, though, really the time for him to uproot his family for the gray skies of England’s northwest? How could P.S.G. sign him and stay with the Financial Fair Play rules? Inter has tried to sign Messi before, but does it have enough appeal now?

It is a strange situation. Messi is the finest player in history. He has lost none of his brilliance. His departure would rock Barcelona to its core. Every team in the world would want him. In theory, anyway. In practice, it is not quite as simple as that.