Inter Miami star Lionel Messi has reiterated his desire to return to live in Barcelona in the future, explaining that his sudden departure from the LaLiga club in 2021 was not how he had imagined leaving.
Messi’s comments come a day after he turned up unexpectedly at Spotify Camp Nou to visit the stadium as it is redeveloped, posting the images on social media with a caption saying he hoped to “return for the goodbye I never got to say as a player.”
“We miss Barcelona a lot,” Messi told Diario Sport. “With the kids, continuously, and my wife, we speak about things in Barcelona. The idea is to return there to live. We have our house there, everything, so that’s what we want.”
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Messi’s Camp Nou drop-in surprised everyone on Sunday. Having arrived in Barcelona ahead of joining up with the Argentina camp in Alicante, he decided to pay an impromptu visit to the arena, sources told ESPN, accompanied by club and international teammate Rodrigo De Paul.
Security staff let him in, where he took the photographs on the pitch which would go on to receive over 22 million likes on Instagram within the first 24 hours of being posted.
It was the first time Messi had been back at Camp Nou since 2021, when he left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain.
“I am really looking forward to getting back to the stadium when it’s finished because I moved to Paris and I never returned to Camp Nou,” he had told Sport in the interview, which was conducted in Miami before the weekend visit.
Lionel Messi arrived in Barcelona ahead of joining up with Argentina in Alicante. captura TV
“And then Barça moved to [the Olympic Stadium in] Montjuïc. It will be strange to go back and see it because the last time I saw it was a long time ago. It will be emotional to get back there and remember everything that was.”
Barça have been playing at the Olympic Stadium since 2023 due to a €1.5 billion refurbishment that is being carried out on Camp Nou.
The club held an open training session there last week in front of 23,000 fans and hope to return before the end of the year when the council grant them a permit to host matches with around 45,000 spectators.
The stadium is unlikely to be completely finished until at least 2027, though, at which point the capacity will have increased to 105,000.
Barça president Joan Laporta has said he would love to inaugurate Camp Nou with a tribute match for Messi. And, while Messi has never strictly commented on that possibility, he does still feel he has unfinished business with the club where he remains the record goal scorer and appearance holder.
“It’s a strange feeling after leaving, because of how it all happened, because I spent my final seasons there playing without fans due to the pandemic,” he said. “After spending all my life there, I didn’t leave as I had dreamed of.
“I imagined myself spending my whole career in Europe in Barcelona and then coming here [to Miami], as I did, because that was my plan. It was what I wanted. So, my goodbye was a little strange, because of the situation.”
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