Report: Leo Messi wants to link up with Robert Lewandowski ... in the Europa League?

A bit overkill, don’t you think?

Yesterday, Argentinian journalist Veronica Brunati announced the return of Leo Messi to FC Barcelona. Of course that report was quickly denied by journalists with better connections in the industry, but who cares? If you clicked on this, you’re here to engage in a time-honored Bayern Munich tradition of clowning the lesser FCB whatever chance we get. So strap in, folks. Let’s look at this rumor.

July 1, 2023, Lionel #Messi will be a Barça player.

To add some context, Veronica Brunati is an Argentinian journalist working for Mundo Deportivo who is considered decently reliable. According to her report, Leo Messi will not extend his contract with PSG and leave at the end of this season. How would Barca pay for this operation? Not even god knows, but Laporta does.

Of course, Barcelona seem to be headed for the Europa League at this point, so who can say if this move will materialize? A second consecutive season of dropping down into the Europa would have Barca selling the shirts off their players’ backs just to keep the lights on. Is that the kind of environment Messi wants to walk into? Who knows ... maybe playing in a Farmers League with Neymar and Mbappe just isn’t doing it for him anymore.

If he did move to Barca, then they’d have to be a favorite for next season’s Champions League title for sure! Oh wait, they said that this year, after Laporta pulled a dozen levers and splashed €200m in the transfer market. Now they’ve lost to an Inter Milan side who are 9th in Serie A, and got trounced by a Bayern Munich team who struggle to score against Augsburg.

Something isn’t right at Barcelona, and Leo Messi won’t fix it. It might have something to do with the coach. Xavi Hernandez has the patented “Barca DNA”, but he’s a couple of bad draws away from being labelled a Paella Lampard. You probably don’t want to entrust your Ferrari of a superclub to a man who starts Marcos Alonso in key UCL games. That kind of thing can only end badly. Then again, maybe the President is to blame, or the club members who elected and enabled him. The saga of FC Barcelona runs deep.

Anyway, we’ll watch this show with great interest. When UEFA inevitably pairs Barca and Bayern in the same group for the third season running, we’ll be there to slap some sense into them one more time. It really never gets old.

Interested in some actual football discussion? Why not check out our postgame review of Bayern Munich’s 5-0 win over Viktoria Plzen? It’s got actual content, very little snark. Listen to it below or on Spotify.

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