FC Barcelona And Lionel Messi Open Contract Negotiations For Player’s 2023 Return To Club

FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi have opened contract negotiations for the club legend to return to the Camp Nou in 2023.

News of the alleged development was reported by Catalunya Radio on Sunday night shortly after the Blaugrana had beaten Pumas UNAM of Mexico 6-0 in the Joan Gamper Trophy.

According to the station’s El Club de la Mitjanit program, talks have already begun between Barca president Joan Laporta and the Argentine’s environment led by his father and agent Jorge Messi.

On June 30 next year, Messi’s contract ends with his current club Paris Saint Germain with whom he is said to have the option of extending for another 12 months should he wish.

By the source of the report, it is claimed that talk of Messi heading to the US to play for Inter Miami after the end of his deal has now cooled down.

Aged 36 by the time he becomes a free agent again if not putting pen to paper once more with PSG, Messi could sign for Barca for a year or two it is said and therefore retire at the club he spent over two decades with after arriving at the La Masia academy as a teenager from Argentina.

Talk of Messi returning to Barcelona has been sparked by recent comments from Laporta, who admitted that he owed a “moral debt” to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner for the manner in which he left the club in 2021.

Messi was a free agent then too last summer, but a financial crisis at the club meant it was unable to offer him a contract extension and Barca’s all-time top goal scorer walked to PSG for nothing.

Experiencing a rough first season at the Parc des Princes, Messi has started 2022/2023 in fine form with three goals and one assist.

The most impressive of these achievements came away at Clermont Foot on Saturday night, with Messi scoring a sensational career first overhead kick as PSG kicked off their Ligue 1 title defence with a 5-0 road win over their overmatched opponents.

Right at the time he appears to finally be finding his feet with his French employers, however, Messi is being linked back to his first love and boyhood club.