Former Barcelona Manager Reveals What Led to Messi Leaving PSG For Inter Miami

Lionel Messi has introduced a Supporters’ Defend and MLS Cup to Inter Miami CF, and now we all know what led to him leaving Paris Saint-Germain for Main League Soccer.

In a latest interview with La Vanguardia (by way of GOAL), Xavi shared a number of insights from his tenure as FC Barcelona supervisor, earlier than being sacked in Could 2024. One revelation Xavi revealed was that Messi’s return to Barcelona following his contract expiring at PSG was all however finalized in early 2023.

In response to Xavi, Messi needed to return to the Catalan membership the place he performed the vast majority of his profession. Messi was coming off the FIFA World Cup victory with Argentina, and the return to Barcelona was pitched as a “final dance,” an ode to Michael Jordan’s ultimate season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98.

Sadly for Messi, the deal by no means materialized, and following the expiration of his contract at PSG, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner departed for Inter Miami. The explanation? Barcelona president, Joan Laporta.

“The President isn’t telling the reality both, Xavi stated. “Leo was signed. In January 2023, after the World Cup, we bought in contact, and he informed me he was enthusiastic about coming again, and I noticed it. We talked till March, and I informed him, ‘Okay, while you give me the OK, I’ll inform the president as a result of I see it as a very good transfer from a footballing perspective.’ Then what occurred? The president began negotiating the contract with Leo’s father, and we had La Liga’s approval, but it surely was the president who threw every thing out. Did he clarify why? Laporta informed me, and I quote, that if Leo got here again, he was going to wage struggle in opposition to him and that he couldn’t permit it. After which instantly Leo stopped answering my calls as a result of he’d been informed on the opposite finish that it couldn’t be accomplished. And after I known as his father, I stated, ‘This may’t be, Jorge,’ and he stated, ‘Speak to the president.’ And I insisted that we’d been speaking with Leo for 5 months, it was a accomplished deal, there have been no doubts about his footballing skill, and financially we have been going to Montjuïc and we have been going to do it.”

These feedback from Xavi are fascinating from a PSG perspective as a result of, towards the tip of 2022 and early 2023, there have been experiences that PSG had supplied an extension to Messi to maintain him within the French capital.

Whereas at PSG, Messi gained Ligue 1 twice, however was unable to ship a UEFA Champions League title. That didn’t come till the 2024-25 season.