On August 11th, Lionel Messi, widely renowned as a top soccer player of all time, officially announced his bombshell transfer news, shocking the soccer world. Messi will be moving from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for the 2021-22 season. This startling development has left many Messi fans wondering what this season has in store.
This soccer icon has long been a hero of the sport. Lionel Messi (born Luis) was born on June 24, 1987 in a town called Rosario, Argentina. As a child, Messi had a definitive passion and interest for soccer. His brothers both were older and played soccer, so naturally, Messi spent a long time around the game. He was eventually asked to join the local club team called Newell’s Old Boys. Despite being noticeably small for his age, he was always a standout on the field.
After some tests, Messi was diagnosed by doctors with having a rare hormone deficiency that impeded his growth. Messi’s parents, Jorge and Ceclia Messi, consulted with doctors and decided to start him on a set regimen of daily growth-hormone injections, a treatment that would later have to be stopped due to Messi’s parents’ inability to afford the hefty cost. When he was only 13 years old, Messi was approached with the opportunity of a lifetime. He was given the chance to train in the youth training team (La Masia) of international soccer superpower FC Barcelona.
They believed in Messi, to the extent they offered to take care of his medical bills. With the major news, Messi’s family packed up their belongings and moved across the ocean from Argentina to Spain. His parents were willing to start a new life in Spain in exchange for his treatment. Messi missed his home country dearly during those years, but he advanced through the ranks of the team at a never-before-seen rate. He was small and mighty and was compared to soccer legends starting at the age of 16 when he made his professional debut for FC Barcelona.
On May 1 2005, Messi became the youngest player to ever score a goal for the storied team. Also in 2005, he led Argentina to an overall title in the U-20 World Cup, scoring back to back Penalty Kicks to catapult them into victory. Messi’s success didn’t stop there. The largest triumph being in 2009, when the Messi-led Barcelona team won the Champions League, La Liga, and Spanish Super Cup. That same year, after two consecutive runner-up finishes (a feat impressive on its own, especially for such a young player), he took home his first FIFA Player of the Year award, otherwise known as Ballon d’Or award.
Senior soccer captain Vikas Maganti discussed with the B-Line writers what it was like to watch Messi as a little kid during this time, “Back then nobody knew Messi like they do today, but as a soccer fan I was so entertained by seeing this young player dominate the world in both club and national play.”
In the coming years, Messi continued to dazzle international soccer fans with his elite skills, despite his small stature. He led FCB to titles in three consecutive years following their first win with him, as well as winning the Ballon d’Or every year they won as well. He has totaled six of those awards, making him the all-time record holder. Messi has only ever competed with FCB, and has been with them for 21 years. In his career there, he has cemented the team as one of the most recognizable in the world, as well as solidifying himself as a top five soccer player ever. But everything good in this world eventually comes to an end.
Mere days before the start of the 2021-22 season, Barcelona announced Messi would not return to their roster. Everyone was in shock. Nobody thought that Messi and Barcelona would separate ways after 21 years as their relationship seemed cemented. Maganti (‘22) was just as shocked as everyone else. He said, “I didn’t believe it at first however it seemed likely as Messi wasn’t getting the money that he wanted from the La Liga club. It is upsetting that money dictated which club he would play for but I guess that it is what it is.”
Maganti was correct in the sense that money does really dictate everything. Messi was prepared to take almost a 50 percent reduction in salary to come back to Barcelona, but this is against league regulations. Barcelona’s statement 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.”
But this was not the first time Messi experienced issues with the club. In the summer of 2020, around the end of his four year contract with Barcelona, Messi publicly stated his desire to leave the club. He believed that he was allowed to leave based on the verbal agreement he had with the president of the club at the time Josep Bartomeu. Bartomeu, however, did not release Messi, forcing him to play for Barcelona for another year.
Many fans are excited for this new chapter in Messi’s career though as he will be reunited with his old teammate, Neymar. This dream duo were unstoppable once the ball was at their feet. We also cannot forget that young superstar Kylian Mbappe and Messi’s Argentinian teammate Angel di Maria are also on PSG which is only a plus. With the addition of Messi, PSG will be an unstoppable force. Messi has stated that he “just came here to help. I’ll give my best… My goal and my dream are to win the Champions League again and I think that Paris is the best place to have a chance to win it again … It’s very difficult to win it. The Champions League is a very special competition and that’s why it’s so beautiful and so important. We all want to win this competition.”
