FC Barcelona are no strangers to seeing their players pick up individual accolades, as has been proven over the years. In the most recent of such cases, ex-Barcelona player and legend Lionel Messi just recently went on to win the 2nd Laureus prize of his accomplished career.
The Argentine ex-Barcelona man received the award for the World Sportsman of the Year, where he was challenged by other global stars such as Kylian Mbappe, Max Verstappen, Rafael Nadal, Mondo Duplantis, and Stephen Curry.
Upon collecting his award, Leo Messi would go on to include FC Barcelona and the “joys” he experienced during his time at the Catalan club in his winning speech. The forward went on to say:
It cost me a lot (becoming a world champion), almost my entire career, in the middle I went through everything, many joys with Barcelona and many sorrows with the national team.
The Argentine forward was already considered to be a strong favorite for this award given his victory at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in December of last year, when he was finally able to break his bad luck at the global international stage and win Argentina their first World Cup since 1986.
In the midst of all of this, the continuous interest from Barcelona remains as strong as ever in bringing Messi back to the Blaugrana club. It remains to be seen how exactly the situation evolves, but reports would suggest there still exists a strong possibility of the 7-time Ballon D’or winner returning to the club.