Inter Miami star Lionel Messi renewed his desire to return to live in Barcelona in the future, explaining that his sudden departure from the Spanish Football League club in 2021 was not what he had imagined leaving.
Messi’s comments come a day after he made an unexpected appearance at Spotify Camp Nou to visit the stadium during its redevelopment, posting pictures on social media with a caption saying he hoped to “go back to say the goodbyes I was never able to say as a player.”
“We miss Barcelona very much,” Messi told Diario Sport. “With my children, constantly, and my wife, we talk about things in Barcelona. The idea is to go back there to live. We have our house there, everything, so that’s what we want.”
Messi’s arrival at Camp Nou surprised everyone on Sunday. After arriving at Barcelona before joining Argentina’s camp in Alicante, he decided to make 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 photos on the pitch that would receive more than 22 million likes on Instagram within the first 24 hours of being posted.
This was the first time Messi returned to Camp Nou since 2021, when he left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back on the pitch when it’s finished because I moved to Paris and never went back to Camp Nou,” he told Sport in the interview in Miami ahead of the weekend visit.
He added, “And then Barcelona 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 go back there and remember everything that happened.”
Barcelona have been playing at the Stadio Olimpico since 2023 due to a €1.5 billion renovation being carried out at the Camp Nou.
The club held an open training session there last week in front of 23,000 fans and hopes to return before the end of the year when the council grants them a permit to host matches in the presence of about 45,000 spectators.
The stadium is unlikely to be fully finished until at least 2027, at which point capacity will rise to 105,000.
Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, said he would like to open Camp Nou with a match in tribute to Messi. Although Messi has never commented strictly on the possibility, he still feels he has unfinished business with the club as he remains the club’s record goalscorer and shareholder.
He said: “It is a strange feeling after leaving, because of what happened, because I spent my last seasons there playing without fans due to the epidemic.” “After spending my whole life there, I never left as I dreamed.
“I imagined myself spending my whole career in Europe at Barcelona and then coming here (to Miami), as I did, because that was my plan. This was what I wanted. So, saying goodbye was a bit strange, because of the situation.”
