Cruyff, who represented Barca as a player before becoming the club’s sporting director, is not convinced that Messi will head back to familiar surroundings. He told reporters, as covered by SPORT, when quizzed on that shock transfer talk: “One last dance? I don’t know what his plans are, so I can’t answer that, but he’s a very special player because of everything he’s meant since he was a child.
“My father has also left at times in better shape and at other times in worse shape, but the affection becomes mutual again over time. What is clear is that the one who decides his destiny and his future, when and how, is Leo, just as my father did.”
Pressed further on whether Messi – who won the MLS Golden Boot in 2025 and has 42 goals to his name this season – could still compete in La Liga having severed ties with Barca in 2021 when leaving for Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent, Cruyff added: “I don’t know, that’s something he has to decide. He is in a different league, he has a World Cup just around the corner, and that will be his great passion right now. [There is] also the issue of the League, and he is competitive; that must be decided by two parties, and I, from the outside, do not have much to say.”
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