La Liga president Javier Tebas and Victor Fonts, FC Barcelona presidential aspirant, have argued over the amount of impact the exit of Lionel Messi will make in the league. Tebas believes that the league is ready for the exit of the Argentine football icon while Fonts argued that Barcelona is not ready for Messi’s exit.
Messi has continued to be a subject of debate in Barcelona and the entire Spanish La Liga since he made it known to Barcelona that he wished to exit the club in August 2020. Javier Tebas and Victor Fonts have been among those football stakeholders in the league that can’t stop debating Messi’s potential exit.
Recently, Javier Tebas said though he wants Messi to stay in the league, his exit would not make much difference as it is being speculated.
He cited that Barcelona sold Neymar to Paris Saint Germain while Real Madrid sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus and the exits of those stars did not change anything in the league. Hence, he insisted that La Liga will be fine without Lionel Messi.
When Messi started pressuring Barcelona to let him leave the club for free, Premier League club, Manchester City began to attempt to lure the 33-year-old Argentine football icon to join the club. Unfortunately for City, Barcelona was able to lure Messi to stay.
Yet, Messi is heavily linked with a move to City either during the January transfer window or at the end of his contract with Barcelona if the Spanish giants don’t succeed in convincing him to stay beyond June 2021, when his current contract expires.
“We would prefer Messi to stay in La Liga but (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Neymar left and we have not noticed any difference”, La Liga president Javier Tebas said. “We are ready.
“It seems the only club in the Premier League that talks about registering Messi are Manchester City. I am not too worried about them. I have criticized what they do so many times. Doing it one more time makes no difference.”
Contrary to Javier Tebas’ assertion, a presidential aspirate of FC Barcelona, Victor Fonts insisted that Barcelona needs to do everything possible to keep Lionel Messi at the club. He stressed that the club should put plans in place to ensure that the 6 times Ballon d’Or winner remains at the club even after he retires from active football.
He noted that it will be difficult for Barcelona to find a replacement for Messi if the club let him go, and he advocated that the club should ensure that Messi is retained in the short term.
Messi has spent his entire senior football career at Barcelona and he is currently the most decorated player at the club. He is the club’s all-time highest goalscorer with 640 goals and 282 assists in 741 games in all competitions.
Despite his agitations against the structure of the club, Lionel Messi has scored 6 goals and has provided 4 assists in 10 games in all competitions so far this season.
“When you are lucky enough to have the best player in the world in your team, you need to retain that talent,” Victor Font said.
“If Messi goes to a competitor we will not find an alternative easily as there is no alternative to Messi. So that’s why retaining him in the short term is critical.
“But for us, the association between Messi and Barca is a strategic relationship and we want to make sure we create the right conditions for Messi to play a role in the club even after he retires. Messi could contribute plenty of ideas.”
