Barcelona want to pay tribute to Messi as soon as new Camp Nou opens for the public | OneFootball

At the Ballon d’Or gala yesterday, Lionel Messi paid tribute to FC Barcelona, as he reserved high praise and esteem for the club, after winning his eighth Golden Ball.

Among these words of praise for the club, Messi admitted that he wants to say goodbye in style to the supporters who were his supporters for 16 seasons, a fanbase that adored and idolised him.

After all, Barcelona fans were unable to give the Argentina captain a proper sendoff and had to see him say goodbye in tears in August 2021, in the middle of the pandemic.

What did Messi say?

Speaking about his departure from Barcelona in 2021 and the possibility of a farewell match at the Ballon d’Or gala, Messi said:

“It was a strange feeling when I left Barça. After what I experienced there, I didn’t want to leave Barça like that. Barça is my home. I love this club and I adore the fans, and I will be very grateful to be back again,” he stated.

“I would like to say goodbye to the Barça fans in another way. I felt like the sensations weren’t good when I left. I deserve to say goodbye to the people that I shared good and bad times with,” Messi added.

Barcelona want to pay tribute at the earliest

Now, Mundo Deportivo’s Roger Torello is reporting that Messi’s words have pleased Barcelona a lot and the club want to arrange a tribute for him in front of the fans as soon as possible.

There is an open contact between the club and Messi’s family and the tribute will be done when the time comes, and the idea is to do it when the team returns to the new Spotify Camp Nou after the renovation work.

Camp Nou undergoing renovation. (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)

Barça assure that their preference is to carry out the tribute to Messi as soon as they return to the new stadium, which is planned to be at the end of November 2024, a year and a month from now, with an approximate capacity of 60 percent.

The Catalans also considered waiting for the refurbished Spotify Camp Nou to be at 100% capacity before filling it to bid farewell to Messi, but they prefer to do so once the stadium is accessible, even if it is not completely finished.

In this sense, the board believes that waiting until 2026, when in theory the work on the stadium will be finished, would be too long because that scenario is too far away.