Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas has promised that Lionel Messi can return to FC Barcelona.
The co-owner of Inter Miami, Jorge Mas, has promised that he will "do everything possible" to make sure that Lionel Messi can return to FC Barcelona in some capacity and "say goodbye to his fans" there.
Mas made the vow in an interview with El Club del Deportista, with Spanish sports newspaper MARCA sharing key quotes from it late on Monday evening.
Mas, who co-owns the MLS franchise with soccer legend David Beckham, shed light on signing Messi in the summer when the Argentine turned down a return to Barca plus a monstrous big money offer from Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
"I always aspired to sign Leo. Everyone told me I was crazy to think he would come to Inter Miami," Mas revealed.
"What better than the best player in the world coming to Miami, where he could enjoy [life] with his wife, with his children.
"In 2019 I arranged a meeting with Jorge Messi. There David Beckham and I explained the Miami project to Jorge for three hours.
"I said, 'Your son will have the opportunity to create a new legacy because he's going to be able to change a sport in a country,' and that rarely happens to an athlete.
"I kept in touch with Jorge constantly. It was four and a half years of convincing Lionel to decide with his family. I never lost faith. I was convinced that Lionel Messi was going to arrive. I saw that there was a great possibility after the World Cup, and in January or February [the possibility to] close something."
Mas touched on the threat posed by Saudi Arabia, where Al-Hilal reportedly offered the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner, who was approaching free agency at Paris Saint-Germain at the time, mouthwatering figures exceeding €1 billion ($1.047 billion) to continue his career in the Middle East.
"Obviously being the best player in the world there was a lot of competition. A lot. Not only with the renewal that PSG wanted, [but also] the possible return to Barcelona and the offers from Saudi Arabia," Mas began on this.
"Frankly they were very intense months. I had multiple meetings between Rosario, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Miami, Doha ... If I saw the operation in danger? No doubt. There was a lot of pressure.
"Messi's departure from Barcelona [in 2021] was not to his liking. He could not say goodbye to his club, which welcomed him as a child, and I think the circumstances were not what Lionel wanted."
In the part of the interview of most interest to Culers, Mas said that he gave Messi his word that he "will do everything possible in the coming years so that he has the opportunity to say goodbye to his fans in Barcelona".
"Inter Miami will go [there] or we will play some kind of game," Mas suggested, with the annual Joan Gamper Trophy, where Barca host a friendly to open the season in August, a possible stage for what would essentially be a tribute match to Messi once the Camp Nou stadium has been renovated.
