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Lionel Messi is a name that goes beyond football. The Argentine is a household name around the world after a storied career that culminated in last year’s World Cup victory.
So when someone like Messi moves between clubs, there is unlikely to be a smooth and straightforward transition.
It looks like the 35-year-old will be on the move again this summer and his potential return to Barca is causing a lot of controversy.
Although Messi has the option of another year at his current club Paris Saint-Germain [PSG], he is set to leave after just two seasons with the French champions.
The club he made his name for himself, Barcelona, are desperate to re-sign the player who left him in 2021, but they are crippled by financial problems and cannot afford to buy him.
There has been interest from Inter Miami, a club in the North American Major League Soccer [MLS] but the most likely to arrive are cash-strapped Saudi Arabia and Riyadh-based Al-Hilal.
Messi would prefer to stay in Europe, where he can win more honours, but the Spanish club are heavily in debt and will be squeezed again by the Spanish league’s financial rules this summer.
But there may be one snag. French newspaper L’Equipe reported last week that Messi’s wife Antonela fears moving the couple’s three sons – Thiago, 10, Mateo, 7, and Ciro, 5 – to Saudi Arabia.
L’Equipe said she ‘cannot imagine’ family life in the Kingdom. Antonela – who is the cousin of one of his childhood friends and teammates, Lucas Scagilia, and comes from the same Argentinian city of Rosario – was his childhood sweetheart.