NOU WAY BACK
‘Focusing on young players’ – Lionel Messi return to Barcelona ruled OUT by club president as PSG struggles continue
LIONEL MESSI will NOT be returning to Barcelona says the club's president - who confessed he has zero contact with the Nou Camp legend.
The Argentine had been linked with a stunning move back to Barca having struggled on the pitch with Paris Saint-Germain and to adapt to life in the French capital.
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Barca chief Joan Laporta insisted earlier this month he has no regrets over his decision to allow the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner to leave the Nou Camp, saying he had to put the club ahead of its best-ever player because of the financial situation.
And he put more space between the Catalan giants and the 34-year-old on Monday by revealing there were no current plans to try to re-sign Messi as the focus is now on the club's rising stars.
Laporta told Catalan radio station : “It’s not something we are considering at the moment.
“We’re building a new team, with young players.”
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“I don’t talk with Leo.
“I don’t have the close communication we had before he left.
“There’s no personal contact. I remember him with his affection and I hope he feels the same.
“For me, it wasn’t easy and I’d have liked things to be different but with the way things happened, I felt the club had to come first and I think we did what we had to do.”
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Messi, who signed a two-year deal at the Parc des Princes, has managed just two Ligue 1 goals this term and was recently BOOED by his own supporters.
On the struggles in Paris, Laporta added: “I hear comments from people who are close.
“Barcelona is a great place and when you leave you miss the city and the club. Leo lived very well here.”
Earlier in March, the Barcelona president described the decision to allow Messi's release as the "saddest of them all".
He told Barca TV: “It was painful. If I take stock, it is the saddest decision of all and I would never have wanted to make it.
"But I am not sorry either because I wanted to put the club ahead of everything, even ahead of coaches and the best player in history.
“And we had to do it because the situation we inherited was what it was.”
Messi - who hinted he could retire from international football after the World Cup - admitted weeks after signing for his new club he “missed everything” about the Catalan capital where he spent two decades.
He also confirmed he would move back to Barcelona with his family once his spell at PSG ends.
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Messi and his wife Antonela Roccuzzo still own the luxury home on the exclusive Bellamar residential estate in Castelldefels, south of Barcelona.
They bought the mansion for £3.5million in 2009 and have spent more than £5m on renovations.
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