'I was dreaming of Barca return': Messi explains why he snubbed much-anticipated Barcelona return
Asked if he thought Barcelona had done everything possible to bring him back, the 35-year-old replied: "It is their issue. Many things were missing. The club, today, was not in a position to confirm 100% that I could return."
Lionel Messi has revealed that he 'dreamt of a return' to Barcelona from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, but has refused to be drawn into a story in which the decision could have been taken away from him due to the club's persistent financial difficulties.
The only reason Messi left Camp Nou at all in 2021 was that the club did not have the spending power to register his agreed contract.
Now, with his stint at PSG coming to an end after two years, he has selected Inter Miami for his next chapter because he isn't certain that Barcelona would not face the same problems again.
"I was dreaming of Barça return, yes; but I was never sure about that happening because I remember very well the story of August 2021, two years ago", Messi told Mundo Deportivo.
"[I was] very excited to be able to return, but, on the other hand, after having experienced what I experienced and the exit I had [in 2021], I did not want to be in the same situation again: wait to see what would happen and leave my future in someone else's hands, so to speak."
"I wanted to make my own decision, thinking about myself, about my family. Although I heard it was said LaLiga had accepted that everything was fine for me to return, there were still many other things that had to be done. I heard that [Barcelona] had to sell players or lower player salaries and the truth is that I didn't want to go through that," he further said.
Already a 'bit tired', Messi added that La Liga had initially accepted things the first time around in 2021 but it still proved to not be possible, which ended up with the player and his family in limbo in a Paris hotel.
"I wanted to make my own decision and that's why it was a bit that I didn't turn to Barca. Although I would have loved it, it couldn't [happen]."
He also explained that it wasn't a question of the money that was offered.
"We never even got to talk about the contract," he said. "A proposal was passed over, but never a formal, written, signed proposal, because there was still nothing. There was the intention, but we couldn't advance anything, we didn't even talk about money formally.
"If it had been a matter of money I would have gone to Saudi Arabia or elsewhere. It seemed like a lot of money to me and the truth is that my decision was for the other side and not for money."
Asked if he thought Barcelona had done everything possible to bring him back, the 35-year-old replied: "It is their issue. Many things were missing. The club, today, was not in a position to confirm 100% that I could return."