Lionel Messi is the biggest soccer star on the planet, and this upcoming summer he could set off a bidding frenzy that makes LeBron James’ free agency look like a day in the park.
The Argentine superstar has spent his entire professional career playing for FC Barcelona of Spain’s La Liga, recently tying the Champions League record with his 71st goal, and has been one of the two best players in the world for nearly a decade now.
The foregone conclusion has been that Messi will play his entire club career with the Barcelona club that famously signed the prodigy on a napkin all those years ago, yet recently Messi has been hinting that finishing his career with Barca may not be a sure thing.
“At the moment I am living in the present,” Messi told Argentine newspaper Ole and interpreted by some in the Madrid-based media. “I am thinking about having a great year and winning the trophies we want at Barcelona. And nothing else. Later we will see. In football things change all the time. Although I have always said I would like to stay there forever, sometimes everything does not always go as you want.”
Messi added: “I have said it many times. If it were for me, I would stay forever. But as I said before, everything does not always come out as you want — even more in football, which changes so much, and in which so many things can happen. It is complicated, even more given what is happening today at Barcelona.”
If Messi were to consider transferring from Barcelona, the numbers thrown around to acquire his services would be astronomical. We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out for the superstar and his club.