Sports

Lionel Messi nearly dumped Barcelona after row with Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Written by MAX FM on January 9, 2020

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi considered ditching the Spanish League champions earlier in his career.

The Argentine became so uncomfortable according to Daily Star after the arrival of Sweden international Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a deal of around £59 million in 2009 from Inter Milan.

While Samuel Eto’o went the other way and in 2010 won the Champions League with the Italian League giants.

Messi, 32, was said to have sent a ‘rude’ text message to his former boss Pep Guardiola when it appeared the Spaniard was not taking care of the situation.

The publication explained that the six-time Ballon d’Or winner could not muster the courage to speak with the manager directly.

And he opted to send him a message which read: “I can see that I am no longer important to the team, so…” This was probably one of the reasons Ibra left the club abruptly despite signing a five year deal with the La Liga outfit over a decade ago.

Although, Messi grew in leaps and bounds at the Catalan club – winning 10 league titles and four Champions League honors after scoring 618 goals in over 700 appearances across competitions.

Daily Star claims Guardiola demanded Barca should sign Zlatan the previous summer and the eventual signing the settle down well with Leo. Authors Sebastian Fest and Alex Juillard wrote: “The appearance of Ibrahimovic had been bad news for Leo.”

“Messi knew it and started to make his feelings known to a coach who had won him over by giving him the green light to play for Argentina at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“But this time there was danger; “Messi had failed to shine in a few games and Ibrahimovic was playing well.”

“Suddenly, there were complications for the Argentine. Ibrahimovic had his own take on Guardiola’s relationship with Messi.

Ibrahimovic also said in his autobiography ‘I Am Zlatan’ that: “He preferred to make Messi happy – he didn’t value me.”

The report has it that Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joked that he is presently worse than during his first stint at Italian side AC Milan after rejoining the side where he played between 2010 to 2012 season. Before joining Paris-Saint-Germain in the 2012/13 season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was superb for AC Milan with incredible goals in the Serie A and Champions League.

On Friday, January 3, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was presented to fans at the San Siro as their new player where the 38-year-old claimed that he should be fit for the coming game against Sampdoria.