Barcelona vice-president confirmed if Lionel Messi will be a Barcelona player next summer.
Lionel Messi’s prospective return to Barcelona in the summer of 2017 would be realistic for the team, according to Barcelona’s economic vice-president Eduard Romeu, who made the remark in an interview with El Mat de Catalunya Ràdio (h/t SPORT).
Everyone was shocked by Messi’s departure from Barcelona last summer. But because of La Liga Fair Play regulations, the club was unable to renew his contract. He ultimately agreed to a two-year contract with PSG.
However, Messi will be a free agent after this season, and Barcelona is working to re-sign him since president Joan Laporta and company want the Argentine legend to continue writing his legacy at Camp Nou.
When his contract with PSG expires, the 35-year-old great is reportedly prepared to leave the club. And Eduard Romeu recently said that since the former Barça captain would be a free agent, the move to bring him back to the team would be feasible.
“I don’t have it in the budget, but if he came back, it would be free, so it would be realistic in my area. It will be a technical decision, but he is a club icon, and this will always be his home,” Romeu added.
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The club does not foresee any problems with player registrations either for the upcoming season, according to the Barcelona economic vice-president, who further stated: “Barça will have no problems next summer with the framework that we have set up.”
Romeu also acknowledged that, despite some financial progress, there was still much work to be done to restore Barcelona to health.
He continued, “We have saved Barça, but we still haven’t resolved it, and we don’t have it healthy; there is still a lot of austerity, rigor, and work to be done.
Romeu acknowledged that it is a challenging assignment, but they had done a good job to reduce the pay bill by approximately €150 million, and added that more progress will be made. Barcelona’s enormous wage bill remains a problem for the club to address.
“There have been numerous changes to contracts and postponements. We will be earning a fair wage in a few seasons.
