Barcelona sporting director Deco has addressed speculation that Argentine legend Lionel Messi could return to the club while he is in charge.<\/p>\n
Deco addressed the prospect of Messi returning for a \u201cfinal dance\u201d in a Barcelona shirt before hanging up his boots, telling Spanish newspaper Sport: \u201cThis is a complex issue; it was discussed at length during the election campaign, and his name was mentioned constantly. Messi is the best player in Barcelona\u2019s history, and for me he is the best player in the history of football, or one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe wish football were eternal in every respect. There are many things we\u2019d like to last forever, but they come to an end. Everything has a beginning, a development and an end, and speculating on this matter seems pointless to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the club\u2019s sporting director, Deco emphasised that he has been privy to every relevant conversation and decision. \u201cThe possibility of a return has never been on the table since I arrived,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither Messi nor anyone representing him has ever called me and said, \u2018Hold on, I want to come back, I want to play.\u2019 It was all just rumours and unrealistic talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deco stressed that there has been no concrete indication from the Argentine that he wants another first-team spell, explaining: \u201cHe hasn\u2019t shown that desire; he posted on Instagram saying he\u2019d like to return one day, but he didn\u2019t specify when. Talking about these matters with a player of Leo\u2019s stature makes no sense unless there\u2019s something real and tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did, however, back the idea of a tribute ceremony, though he stressed that planning such an event falls outside the sporting department\u2019s remit: \u201cIt\u2019s clear that the date of Messi\u2019s tribute doesn\u2019t depend on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deco then addressed Messi\u2019s visit to the \u2018Spotify Camp Nou\u2019 construction site last November, explaining: \u201cHe was with the national team at a hotel, not at his home. He went for a walk and ended up at Camp Nou. That\u2019s how I understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read also: At public auction\u2026 Messi sells a piece of his Barcelona history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona sporting director Deco has addressed speculation that Argentine legend Lionel Messi could return to the club while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,637,638,85,639],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-l-messi","tag-laliga","tag-major-league-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","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=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}