Lionel Messi set for a shocking exit from Barcelona
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
Unless there is a final, wild twist in the tale, there’ll be some point over the coming weeks when Lionel Messi will suit up in a brand-new uniform and pose for a bunch of photographs.
It won’t be a game or a training session. It will be a photoshoot. And it will send the world of sports into a frenzy.
For that is what happens when we get visual cues to an upended reality. The reaction to the news that Messi will be leaving Barcelona has already been both international and all-encompassing. But we haven’t "seen" it yet.
"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles," a Barcelona statement read.
Even in Tokyo, where they’ve waited long and pined hard for the Olympics and will miss it when it disappears in a couple of days, the top of the news bulletins was an item unfolding far, far away.
Messi was once an Olympian but that’s the only present connection. The revelation he would be heading to a new, to-be-determined destination was bigger than the Games jogging toward a close, local coverage hopping between the stuff happening on their doorstep and what was going on in Spain.
Here in the United States, Messi’s imminent farewell soared to the top of Twitter’s trend charts. In Africa, in the South Pacific, all across the globe, the reaction was similar.
And we haven’t even talked about Europe, where Messi has been with Barca since he was 12, or South America, where he is a national hero in his homeland of Argentina.
However, what will really lock it in our minds is when he decides on a team and suits up in his new clothing, whether it be that of France’s Paris St. Germain, England’s Manchester City, Italy’s Juventus or some spot we haven’t even thought of.
Remember the jolt you felt when you saw Tom Brady suit up in Tampa Bay Buccaneers garb for the first time? That’s what it will be like, and it will be different to anything soccer has seen in recent times.
It wasn’t a shock to the system when Cristiano Ronaldo rolled up in Serie A with Juventus. It was a surprise, sure, but no more than that. After all, Ronaldo had already moved clubs once, as a youngster switching from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United, then again, swopping United for Real Madrid.
It wasn’t even a monumental jar when David Beckham departed Madrid, switching the all-white for the similar kit of the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. Again, Beckham had already switched teams once, and it was clear the scope of his fame would lead to opportunities that didn’t apply to most players, at least back then.
Not Messi. Not since before his teenage years has the little maestro been associated with any other club, nor seriously linked with any. He was a Barcelona man, through and through. For now, and, it seemed, forever.
"The two things, the club and the player, have been so intertwined for so long it is hard to wrap your head around this," former United States men's national team captain and FOX Sports Soccer Analyst Alexi Lalas told me. "But it is a stark reminder that soccer is a business and there are business realities at play."
Messi is a quiet character, who loves home life more than the high life, who treats his multitude of millions with the utmost care and doesn’t particularly like change.
If he was ever to leave, everyone figured, it would come at the very end, a couple of years either in Major League Soccer or even back in Argentina, for nostalgic purposes. Not now, not with his star still at its peak, not with plenty more to offer on the field at the age of 34.
However, that’s what appears to be shaking down. For years, Spanish soccer’s biggest teams have tied themselves in knots while trying to build the most star-studded, talent-laden squads possible. Most years, the clash for the title is a two-way battle between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and each dislikes the other so much that losing immediately prompts a response.
It is an arms race and it has come at a staggering cost. Now, La Liga leaders have finally gotten serious about clamping down, implementing a salary cap and forcing teams to stick to it.
Even with Messi prepared to cut his pay structure of around $83 million per year by more than 60%, there was simply no way to make the numbers work.
"Messi has been in that cocoon for so long and being in that Barcelona environment has helped him become arguably the greatest player to ever live," Lalas added. "But to see him in a new country, a new environment, that would be pretty fascinating in itself."
Perhaps it is more bluster, the announcement of a final power play from Barcelona aimed at making Spanish league officials relent in reaction to the fear that one of its marquee players will leave for a foreign land. There have been some bumps in the road before, like a year ago when Messi fell out with Barcelona’s then-leadership team and requested a move, which was denied.
This time though, it seems real and if you’re looking for indicators about a landing spot, the photograph of Messi having dinner with several Paris St. Germain players this week may steer you in the right direction. Already, the French club with deep pockets and big ambitions is gearing itself up for a blockbuster offer, according to multiple European reports.
It is still possible for a player to spend his whole career with one team, but those rare cases are in danger of becoming extinct. If Messi can be pried away from Barca, then no bonds of loyalty are too tight to be unhooked.
It is still a head-shaker – the mere concept that Messi and Barcelona will be united no more and, even more striking than that, that the player might find himself in Champions League action against his former home before too long.
It will take some getting used to as "Lionel Messi – not of Barcelona" doesn’t roll off the tongue particularly well. But if you think that’s strange, wait until you see him in his new jersey.
That’s when the shift will become real.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
