One of the biggest legends of FC Barcelona once again wrote history last night as Lionel Messi won yet another Ballon d’Or to take his award tally to eight.
The Argentine spoke to the media after winning the award, and one of the most prominent parts of his talk was his comments about Barcelona, as he stated that while he had been hurt by the way he had to leave the club, his love for the Catalan club remains the same as ever.
Furthermore, he even went as far as saying that he wants to live in Barcelona once again and wants his farewell from the club.
Barcelona’s role in his Ballon d’Or
The main highlights of his media talk, as reported by SPORT, are as follows:
Messi admitted that being at Barcelona allowed him to win a higher number of Ballon d’Ors than most other clubs could have allowed:
“Obviously, being in the best team in the world gives you more opportunities to win collective and individual titles, especially in the best team in history. It’s the best team in the world, special and different from everything.”
The Argentine recalled his great years at Barcelona and then winning the World Cup, everything that paved his way to win a record eight Ballon d’Ors:
“I had spectacular years at Barça and the luck to be in the best team in the world for many years, winning everything, and then the World Cup happened, which is special and the only one I was missing, and at the same time, the most special and important. Every kid’s dream is to be a world champion with their national team, at least for Argentinians. I am grateful to God.”
Current Barcelona and future return to the club
Messi also talked about the present state of affairs at Barcelona, and believed that his former club is ready to compete for all the titles:
“Obviously, I still follow Barcelona as always, and I will continue to do so. It’s the club I love and will love all my life. I believe it has a great team, with fantastic players, a mix of young and experienced ones. In football, many things can happen, there can be departures, issues… Barcelona is prepared to fight for this Champions League.”
“Beyond losing the Clásico, the team will recover from this tough blow. I have no doubt that they are one of the candidates, but they shouldn’t put too much pressure on themselves. They should take it step by step and grow during the competition.”
In what will definitely make Barcelona fans happy, Messi also indicated an intention to return to Barcelona at some point in time in the future:
“Barcelona is the club where I grew up, which gave me everything, which I love, and where I also gave my all. Why not return to the club? But it’s not something I’m thinking about now. Someday, I will be living in Barcelona, I will be close to the club in one way or another. I will be linked to that home, and I don’t know what could happen.”
“I would love to be able to say goodbye to the people in a different way. I think there was a strange feeling when I left, and it’s not nice considering everything we shared together. I believe I deserve to bid farewell to those people with whom I’ve shared so much joy and sorrow throughout my career. If it happens, I’d be delighted to be there, of course.”
