{"id":279,"date":"2026-04-10T20:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/279\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:09:12","slug":"deco-confirms-barcelona-never-considered-messi-return-never-been-on-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/279\/","title":{"rendered":"Deco confirms Barcelona never considered Messi return – ‘Never been on the table’"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are merely a few months away from the summer of 2026, which will mark five years since Lionel Messi tragically left Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Since then, there has been a lot of chatter internally surrounding Messi potentially returning to Camp Nou for one last dance.<\/p>\n

However, Barcelona sporting director Deco, who is hard at work finding new players in the transfer market<\/a>, has clarified the club\u2019s position in a recent interaction, confirming that Messi\u2019s return was never quite on the table.<\/p>\n

Deco\u2019s stunning relevation about Messi<\/p>\n

Speaking to GE (h\/t Diario SPORT<\/a>), Deco was asked whether or not Messi will return to Barcelona before hanging up his boots.<\/p>\n

In response, the Bar\u00e7a sporting director started out by praising the Argentine, calling him the best of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue is complex. Much has already been said about him in the presidential campaign. His name was used all the time. Messi is the best player in Barcelona\u2019s history; for me, the best player in the history of football or one of the best,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He vaguely implied that even though Barcelona wanted Messi to return, it was never a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like football to be eternal in all aspects. There are many things that we would like to be, but they come to an end. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. Speculating about that seems a bit pointless to me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The Portuguese then goes on to confirm that the talk of Messi\u2019s return was never a possibility, at least since he joined as the sporting director of the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scenario of return, in reality, at least since I have been there, has never been put on the table,\u201d he clarified. <\/p>\n

\"LionelTalk of Messi\u2019s talk was never a topic during Deco\u2019s tenure. (Photo by Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In fact, Deco added that Messi or his entourage have never called Barcelona either, surrounding the idea of a return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Leo Messi or someone around him calls and says: \u2018Hey, I want to come back, I want to play\u2019, it has not happened. All that has been a lot of rumours, many unreal things,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Deco also spoke in reference to Messi\u2019s famous Instagram picture at Camp Nou, which took the Barcelona fandom by storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has not manifested that will; he made a post on Instagram saying that one day he would like to return, but he did not specify it. Talking about this kind of thing with a player as big as Leo makes a bit of sense if there is nothing real or concrete,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

About how Messi got into the stadium, Deco revealed the version of the story he was aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was with the national team and he was in the hotel, he didn\u2019t stay at home. In the end he went out for a walk and entered Camp Nou. I think it was more or less like that, from what I understand,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Deco, who is in favour of holding a tribute match for Messi at Camp Nou, stated that it is not up to him to decide the feasibility of such an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obvious that the day Messi has to be honoured, this is not something that depends on me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are merely a few months away from the summer of 2026, which will mark five years since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,330,331,223,332],"class_list":{"0":"post-279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-camp-nou","11":"tag-deco","12":"tag-fc-barcelona","13":"tag-lionel-messi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}