Lionel Messi: “Leaving Barça left me with a strange feeling”
Lionel Messi emotionally revisited his departure from FC Barcelona in 2021, which he still considers painful and unfinished today.
Lionel Messi en larmes, lors de ses adieux au Barça
An absolute icon of FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi reflected on his painful exit from the Catalan club in the summer of 2021. More than four years after that episode, the Argentine admits he still feels a deep nostalgia about how the story ended.
In an interview with the daily SPORT, the captain of Inter Miami admitted he couldn’t leave Barça the way he would have liked. “I didn’t leave the club the way I imagined. I was left with a strange feeling after my departure,” he said, referring to a moment full of emotion but spoiled by the circumstances.
Facing major financial difficulties, FC Barcelona was unable to renew the contract of its legend despite the mutual desire of both parties. That’s how Messi, free of any contractual ties, joined Paris Saint-Germain in August 2021.
The 38-year-old Argentine, winner of the 2022 World Cup, especially remembers the absence of the public during his final months in the blaugrana shirt, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I finished my last years without the supporters. The farewell moment was a bit strange because of the circumstances,” he regretted.
Messi played his final match with Barça in May 2021, in a 2-1 defeat to Celta Vigo at a desperately empty Camp Nou. An exit without ovation, far from the legend he had embodied for more than twenty years in Catalonia.