Every football fan in the world must have felt a bit sorry for Lionel Messi last night.Arguably the greatest player to have ever played the game led his side to a completely humiliating defeat as they lost 8-2 to Bayern Munich in their Champions League quarter-final.Messi had very little impact on the game as the Bavarians put Barca brutally to the sword.It brings Barcelona’s wretched 2019/20 campaign to an end.They finished second to Real Madrid in La Liga, lost to Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, were beaten by Atletico Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana and have now been thrashed by Bayern in the Champions League.Quique Setien will be sacked but where does this leave Messi?
There were already reports of the Argentine doing the unthinkable and leaving Barcelona at the end of this contract, which expires in the summer of 2021.Unsurprisingly, more reports emerged concerning Messi’s future at full-time with Cope saying that Messi will leave next summer if there aren’t big changes at the club.You can’t exactly blame him for demanding that.At the age of 33, Messi still produced a very impressive individual season with 25 goals and 21 assists in his 33 La Liga appearances.But he can’t do it all by himself.
And pretty heartbreaking footage of the captain at half-time vs Bayern Munich has emerged via ESPN.Barca found themselves 4-1 down at the interval and Messi knew that not even his magic would be good enough to haul his side out of this mess.As a result, he can be seen sitting down staring into nothingness as he reflected on an awful 45 minutes.
It really is sad to see.
After the match, BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand suggested that Messi will be considering his future right now.
“What is Messi thinking going home tonight?” Ferdinand asked.
“Does he want to spend his time left in that shirt given the performances and the way the squad is looking at the moment in comparison to other teams around Europe.
“Has he got the time to sit there and wait?
“Football is a game that comes and goes very quickly in your life so these next two years where he's still going to have the power to influence games the way he does, is he going to want to be doing that but not competing for the big titles?”