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9 hours ago
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Barcelona have paid tribute to club legend Lionel Messi on his 38th birthday. The Inter Miami forward played the majority of his career with the Catalan side before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2021.
Barcelona uploaded pictures from Messi's iconic moments in the Catalan side's colors on Instagram and captioned the post:
“You gave us your heart. And you’ll always have ours. Felic aniversari, Lionel Messi.”The Argentine joined the club as a 13-year-old and rose through the ranks to play 778 matches for the Catalan side's first team, scoring 672 goals and assisting 303 times. He was forced to leave in 2021 after LaLiga rules prevented the club from renewing his contract.
Confirming the unfortunate news to the fans in April 2021, the Catalan side released a statement which read:
"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration. As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled. FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life."Lionel Messi spent two seasons at PSG before heading to Inter Miami. He played 75 matches for the French side, and has now played 62 times for the MLS outfit.
Lionel Messi wanted to make Barcelona return in 2023
Lionel Messi confirmed that he wanted to rejoin Barcelona in 2023 when his PSG contract expired. However, the club had to lower the wages of their players to accommodate the Argentine, and thus the move never came to fruition.
The FIFA World Cup winner ultimately joined Inter Miami. He told Mundo Deportivo in June 2023 (via GOAL):
"I heard that they had to sell players or lower player salaries and the truth is that I didn't want to go through that, or take charge of obtaining something that had to do with all that. I have already been accused of many things that were not true in my career at Barcelona and I was already a bit tired, I didn't want to go through all that."Messi has won the Ballon d'Or eight times in his career and the UEFA Champions League four times. He also has 10 LaLiga titles and two Ligue 1 titles to his name.
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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava
English (US)