da dobrowin： Journalist Sid Lowe has revealed that Barcelona's current financial situation means that as things stand, they would not be able to re-sign Lionel Messi this summer.
What's going on with Messi and Barcelona?
da bet vitoria： The 35-year-old is out of contract at Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, and recent reports have indicated that he is keen to re-join Barcelona, with whom he had many successful years.
Messi originally departed Camp Nou in 2021 following financial issues which meant his contract could not be renewed, and he subsequently moved to PSG.
He could move on a free transfer this summer, but with reported wages of just under £1.1m-per-week, it would be a tall order for Barcelona to reduce their already large wage budget to accommodate him.
Speaking on ESPN FC, Lowe claimed that Barcelona would either have to activate more economic levers – which saw them spend heavily last summer – or reduce their wage bill massively to have any chance of bringing their greatest-ever player back.
He said: "You'd be in a position where you wouldn't be paying a transfer fee for him, but it would depend on the size of the salary.
"But right now, no, they don't have the margin for it. So that asks all sorts of questions: where's the money coming from – sales of players, or maybe we go back and we discover a few more levers that can be pulled?"
Should Barcelona move on from Messi?
Barcelona are in a tough situation, as there could be a strong temptation to bring back arguably the greatest player of all time, who is still capable of performing at a high level as shown in Ligue 1, but the deal as a whole does not make a lot of sense in the long run.
Sales appear to be necessary to accomodate an ageing player, and after a number of transfer windows in which younger players such as Raphinha, Ferran Torres, Eric Garcia and Jules Kounde arrived – while Pedri, Gavi and Alejandro Balde were given more prominent roles – disrupting the squad to shoehorn Messi into the team may not suit Xavi's project.
Xavi's former boss Pep Guardiola once described Messi as "unstoppable", and whilst he may still have a lot to offer in front of goal, his supposed diminished impact on games may yet hinder Barcelona.
Indeed, he was blamed for PSG's Champions League exit against Bayern Munich, perhaps signalling that his impact on games at the most elite level is not what it used to be having scored goals and won trophies for fun at Barcelona, and given the financial gymnastics the club will have to go through to bring him back, there is a fair argument to suggest that they should move on without him.