BARCELONA PLANNING AUDACIOUS MOVE TO RE-SIGN MESSI IN JANUARY, OPERATION ‘COMPLICATED’

October 29th, 2022 La Liga, Ligue 1, News comments

According to a surprise report from SPORT, Barcelona intend to make their move to re-sign Lionel Messi from Paris Saint-Germain in the January transfer window itself.

It is no secret at this point that the Blaugrana are keen on bringing Messi back to the club, having been forced to see him leave last year due to the financial situation.

With the Argentina captain’s contract at PSG expiring next summer, Barça were planning to swoop in for him at the end of the season and land him on a Bosman deal.

However, as per the report, Barcelona are now considering fast-tracking those plans to the January window itself.

This is because the Catalan giants will be operating on the 1:1 rule during the winter market, wherein they can reinvest every penny they earn into player signings. For the next summer window, the club would likely be back to the 1:4 rule, which would make it very difficult for them to re-sign Messi.

Hence, president Joan Laporta is seriously considering the prospect of making an attempt to sign the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner as early as the January window. However, Barcelona are aware that any such move would be extremely difficult to pull off because of three reasons.

Firstly, Messi still has a contract with PSG and Barça will have to negotiate with PSG to sign him, with the Parisian giants having no intentions of letting their superstar leave midway through the campaign.

Secondly, the Ligue 1 champions do not share a good relationship with Barcelona and will not do any favours to the club. And finally, Messi himself is focused on the World Cup and seeing out the rest of the season at PSG, meaning a winter switch is unlikely to be on his mind.

There has been no direct contact between Barcelona and Messi over any such move at the moment, and the attempts to reach out through intermediaries have not been fruitful.

Laporta intended to meet Messi when he travelled to Paris for the Ballon d’Or gala earlier this month, but there was no meeting held then either, with no dialogue taking place between the two since the Argentine’s departure last year.

The Catalans are aware that a move of such a magnitude is extremely difficult to pull off, especially considering that they are already in the month of October.

Furthermore, PSG are already working on extending the former Barça captain’s contract. So, considering everything, it seems impossible that the Catalan giants’ scheme to sign Messi in January will see any success.