Guardiola confident Messi will rejoin Barcelona this summer

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 10 May 2023 16:30 BST
• 3 min read

Pep Guardiola says that he hopes Lionel Messi returns to Barcelona this summer and admits that the player and club president Joan Laporta are doing everything to make it happen.

Messi’s contract at PSG expires at the end of the season and it is now clear that he will depart on a free transfer next month.

There are three clubs fighting for Messi’s signature; Barcelona, Al-Hilal and Inter Miami.

Lionel Messi at PSG: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2022-23

The offer on the table from Al-Hilal is believed to be a staggering €400 million per year.

But Messi’s preference is believed to be to return to Barca if the club can work out a way financially to make the deal.

Barcelona and Messi are in talks over a return for the Argentine, who left Camp Nou in 2021 on a free transfer for PSG.

What did Guardiola say about Messi?

"I'm a Barcelona fan, I've got my tickets [at Camp Nou], and I just hope that one day we can say goodbye to him as he deserves," Guardiola told ESPN

"He's the greatest player of all time.

"In the last 12 years or so, Barcelona had a 'boom' and that wouldn't have been possible without him. And I'm not talking about numbers, but rather his involvement in the play, his beauty, his efficiency, his efficiency, everything.

"I never would have thought that it would end as it did.

“I'm convinced what president [Joan] Laporta loves Leo, and since he left, he has said [Messi] deserves to have a farewell for the important figure that he is.

"Leo helped our club [Barcelona] become much greater than when he arrived. When a person is so big, you have to say goodbye in the right way. He left because of very difficult financial circumstances, for thousands of reasons that I'm not going to get into.

"I hope the day comes when I'm in my seat [at Camp Nou] and I can stand up and applaud, and say goodbye to Leo as he deserves. And I know that Joan [Laporta] is going to try, and Leo too, and he and his family will receive all the love that Barcelona fans have for him, with all the gratitude and respect for what he did for the club."

Messi broke virtually every record during over 20 years at Camp Nou, scoring an incredible 672 goals in 778 games.

He played under Guardiola from 2008 to 2012.