Even at 30 years of age Barcelona star Lionel Messi would probably command a world record fee. The Argentinian forward is so valuable to his team that no amount of money could compensate for his loss.
With that in mind, Messi has conceded that Barcelona will more than likely be the only team he plays for in Europe, but the five time Ballon d'Or winner has revealed in an interview with Mundo Albiceleste that he would like to play in his native Argentina before he hangs up his boots:
It becomes more and more clear that Barcelona will be my only team in Europe. After that, I have always said that I want to play football in Argentina but I don’t know if it will happen. I have it in mind.
I’d like to live it, be it for six months or a few matches but I don’t know. One never knows. My dream was to play for Newell’s as a kid, going to the matches with my dad, my brothers, my friends...after that; circumstances in life took me elsewhere but I still have that in mind.
On his teams' World Cup hopes this summer Messi stated that the Argentina squad needs to be realistic and approach the competition with humility in order to be successful:
There’s a big challenge coming up for me personally as well as the group. For the country in general, their dream is the same as ours. It’s a beautiful responsibility to be able to represent the entire country at the World Cup.
We have time to work and we need it. We have to go in there with calmness and send out a message that we will be the best in the world because that is not the case. We are not the best in the world, let’s be realistic, and with that humility, we have to go look for that dream.
We have players to be able to dream. It’s important to start off with a win to build confidence. We don’t have an easy group.
Argentina are in Group D with Croatia, Nigeria and Iceland, and will play Iceland in their first group game on June 16.
