Xavi Asked Barca to Sign Back Messi?

Is there any possibility of seeing Lionel Messi back in the Barca shirt?

Barcelona based newspaper Sport report says that FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has asked president Joan Laporta to sign back Lionel Messi at the end of the new season, after the Argentine's contract with PSG runs out in 2023.

Messi left Barcelona in 2021 after a long renewal process which never came to fruition. It left Barcelona without a reference point, without a world-class star and a brand which many companies wanted to associate themselves with.

Despite the fact that two years will have passed and Messi will be 36-years-old, Xavi believes that Messi can still offer a lot on the pitch given his experience and quality. The coach thinks it is reasonable for Messi to come back and lead the team in the near future, the report read.

An ESPN report claimed that Barca president Joan Laporta has said Lionel Messi's "chapter" at the club is "not over" and considers it his responsibility to ensure the forward has a "more beautiful ending" at the Camp Nou.

"Messi was everything," Laporta was quoted as having said exclusively to ESPN.

"To Barca, he's been possibly its greatest player, the most efficient. To me he's only comparable to Johan Cruyff. But it had to happen one day. We had to make a decision as a consequence of what we inherited. The institution is in charge of players, coaches. 

"I would hope that the Messi chapter isn't over. I think it's our responsibility to try to ... find a moment to fix that chapter, which is still open and hasn't closed, so it turns out like it should have, and that it has a more beautiful ending," Laporta said.

The Argentina forward has a year remaining on his contract at PSG, with the option of a further year.      

"As president of Barca, I did what I had to do. But also as president of Barca, and on a personal level, I think I owe him," he added.