Barcelona President Joan Laporta has said the Catalan club will always be regarded as Argentina captain Lionel Messi’s home, as the club holds the belief the Argentine will return to his former club when his two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires at the end of the season.
The 35-year-old was suspended by PSG for two weeks following an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia, but he has since returned to feature in the club’s 5-0 victory over Ajaccio last weekend after making a public apology to the club and his teammates.
In a recent interview with Spanish Broadcaster TV3, Laporta declared the Spanish club are ready to challenge any other club in the world to sign the Argentine.
” History backs us, the feelings are too strong, we have 400 million fans around the world too”.
“He is a Paris Saint-Germain player and we have to wait till the end of the season until it is over, and then we can talk more calmly about this,” he said.
” With all due respect to Saudi Arabia, Barca is Barca and it is home”.
The President also claimed he had an “affectionate discussion” with Messi by congratulating him after he led his country to win the World Cup in Qatar last year.
Barcelona won their first league title since 2019 after a 4-2 derby win over Espanyol on Sunday.
