According to Marca (Spain), Messi will not attend the 125th anniversary celebration of Barcelona Club on November 29. But he will send a message through a video.
Messi received an invitation from Barcelona 15 days ago. However, the 37-year-old Argentine player could not arrange his schedule to attend the ceremony, due to previously scheduled promotional events.
Messi is currently out of action until February 2025, with Inter Miami eliminated early from the MLS Cup and Argentina completing their 2024 schedule.
However, the main reason Messi refused to return to Barcelona at the last minute could be because of the unresolved conflict with the club’s president, Joan Laporta, according to Marca .
“This is an important event (the 125th anniversary of FC Barcelona), the team must have planned it a long time in advance. However, they only sent Messi an invitation 15 days before the event. For a player like Messi, regardless of the time he is not playing, he always has a busy schedule for other events. Therefore, along with the relationship with Mr. Laporta that is said to be non-existent, Messi decided not to attend,” Marca said.
“Messi only participated in the event as a member of the jury for the song celebrating the club’s 125th anniversary. They asked for his opinion and he agreed to do it, because Barcelona means a lot to him,” according to Marca .
The conflict between Messi and Mr. Laporta happened in 2021 when the president changed his mind at the last minute not to sign a contract extension for financial reasons, forcing the famous player to tearfully say goodbye to Barcelona to go to PSG.
After ending his contract with PSG, Messi wanted to return to Barcelona, but once again Mr. Laporta influenced this famous player to not be able to return to the Catalan team, forcing him to choose to go to the US to join Inter Miami until now.
Despite this, Messi’s love for Barcelona remains unchanged. He said in an interview with 3Cat, a digital platform based in Catalonia, “I’m not at all surprised that Barcelona are doing so well under Hansi Flick. The team is looking back to La Masia, where I came from when I was 13. It’s great that the players who were trained here continue to take the team forward. They are players who know the club better than anyone else. When they are given confidence, they will help the team go further than ever.”
Messi also expressed: “In the future, my family and I will definitely return to Barcelona. My children, my wife and I miss Barcelona very much. We have friends and left a lot of things there. My children are Catalan, and I have lived my whole life in Barcelona. I feel like I come from Barcelona, and I miss this place very much. You never know where life will take you, but we intend to live in Barcelona because it is our home.”
