On August 5^th, 2021, Futbol Club Barcelona officially announced that Lionel Messi would not re-sign for the club. This created a shockwave across the world with fans wondering which club would benefit from FC Barcelona’s loss. While many clubs vied for Messi’s talents,  Paris Saint-Germain Futbol Club (PSG) officially signed Messi on August 10, 2021.

Fans and commentators alike were confused at first as to why Messi would leave FC Barcelona after 21 years. According to FC Barcelona, “despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration.” The LaLiga regulation that prevented Messi from re-signing was a finance problem. Essentially, FC Barcelona is in so much debt right now that they couldn’t afford to re-sign Messi.

On August 9, 2021, Lionel Messi gave a farewell speech indicating that he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the club that he loved so much. “In these last few days, I was thinking about what I would say today, but to be honest I couldn’t come up with anything. I was blocked like I still am right now,” Messi said. “I was convinced that we would remain with the club, which is our home.”

Messi wasn’t ready to leave FC Barcelona, and clearly, neither were his teammates.  Sergino Dest, Messi’s teammate,  posted to  Twitter saying, “As a kid, you dream of playing with players like Leo Messi. Although just a year, I am blessed to have been able to play with you in this club where you made so much history. It’ll be something I cherish for the rest of my life.”

Lionel Messi is considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time. He created a name for himself at FC Barcelona scoring a total of 672 goals in 17 seasons. He also won a total of 35 trophies for the team, four of them were Champion League titles (the Champion’s League is one of the hardest competitions in Europe).