"The sun would shine brightly" — Joan Laporta is already writing the poetry for Lionel Messi's Barcelona farewell. The only catch? The party's on hold until Camp Nou's renovation is done.
The Barcelona president confirmed this week that the club intends to give Messi a formal send-off, but timing it around the stadium rebuild. "We will place ourselves at his disposal to organize it," Laporta said, framing the whole thing as a tribute befitting the occasion. Which, given what Messi actually meant to this club, is fair enough.
What Messi left behind
778 appearances. 672 goals. 303 assists. 35 trophies, including ten LaLiga titles and four Champions League crowns. He arrived from Newell's Old Boys as a teenager in 2000 and spent 21 years becoming the definitive Barcelona player — and for a significant portion of football, the definitive player, full stop.
He left in the summer of 2021 under circumstances that had nothing to do with his form or age. Barcelona's financial collapse forced him out. He went to PSG, then to Inter Miami in 2023, and at 39 he's still playing competitive football in MLS. The farewell he deserved never came.
Xavi Hernandez, who shared the pitch with him 399 times, put it plainly: "You didn't need to understand football to know Messi was different. Even if you didn't understand football, you'd still watch him and think, 'Wow, what just happened?'" That's not sentiment — that's a precise description of what it felt like watching him on a Tuesday night in February against a mid-table side.
Why the timing actually matters
Camp Nou's renovation is a multi-year project, which means this farewell is still some way off. Messi will be well into his 40s by the time the stadium is ready — which raises a genuine question about what version of him shows up, and whether the occasion still carries the same emotional weight by then.
For now, Barcelona fans will have to make do with Laporta's promise. The club owes Messi this, and they clearly know it. Whether they deliver on schedule is a different matter — Barcelona's relationship with timelines, financial and otherwise, hasn't always been reliable.
