[Video] Lionel messi will leave Barcelona at the end of the season
World class yarn spinner Francois Gallardo, nominally a FIFA agent but more accurately a spreader of rumours, Gallardo dropped one his periodic bombs on Spanish TV show El Chiringuito on Wednesday night.
Namely: that Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona at the end of the season, and will accept PSG’s lucrative offer of €30 million net per year. Gallardo claims Messi’s been ‘betrayed’ by the Barcelona hierarchy, and that he and his people recently met with Sheikh Nasser Al Khelafi’s right hand man, to discuss the move. When Carme Barcelo contests Gallardo’s story, saying Messi doesn’t want to leave, Gallardo retorts by asking, ‘If he doesn’t want to leave, why did he meet with PSG? It’s all very spectacular, melodramatic, and over the top, but bear in mind this is Spain’s most watched football show, and ridiculous as Gallardo’s persona is, he doesn’t just invent things from thin air either… And though Barcelona saw off City this week, it felt like a Pyrrhic victory. Barcelona’s cycle is coming to an end, and with Puyol retiring, Xavi possibly leaving, who’s to say Messi couldn’t leave?