5 reasons why Lionel Messi should leave Barcelona

#3 Opportunity to prove he can thrive in any other league

Manchester City FC v FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League

Honestly, this shouldn't even be an argument. We have seen Lionel Messi take the best teams in Europe to the cleaners and it's demeaning to suggest that he won't be able to replicate these levels in any other league in the world.

Messi has been world-class throughout his career and his four UEFA Champions League titles should be proof enough. His greatest rival Cristiano Ronaldo has challenged Lionel Messi to take on new challenges and prove to the world that he can do it anywhere.

Ronaldo has played and been successful in Portugal with Sporting Lisbon, in England with Manchester United, in Spain with Real Madrid and now in Italy with Juventus. There is no reason why Messi won't be able to do that and he should just go ahead and take this challenge head on.

9 vs. Arsenal6 vs. Man City4 vs. Man Utd3 vs. Chelsea2 vs. Spurs2 vs. LiverpoolIt must be exhausting scoring so many goals against these English teams. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/YIvP9uV2Df
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 1, 2019

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#2 Messi can cement his reputation as the GOAT

This is actually an extension of the previous point. The argument that Messi detractors offer in the GOAT debate when he's pitted against the greatest players to have ever graced the game is that Lionel Messi has never broken out of his comfort zone.

That he rose through the ranks at Barcelona and that he is only so good because he has had everybody catering to him and has had exceptional players who understand him entirely playing alongside him and that it is the environment that has enabled him to appear so great.

We'd all like to know how he fares in a new environment where everything's not tailormade for him to flourish.

If Ronaldo and Messi are removed from the sample then most top-end forwards average 30-35 goals in all competitions. This is the *normal* range. The two GOATs have warped the general understanding of what a ‘good’ season is.People need to shift back. pic.twitter.com/MhyrNlqUBu
— UtdArena (@utdarena) November 21, 2020

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#1 To reinvent his career

Lionel Messi has been nowhere near his best this season and it doesn't look like he enjoys playing with a lot of his teammates. He seems disinterested at times and it looks like his heart is not at Barcelona anymore. Most of Lionel Messi's favourite teammates have either left or retired.

A new club will give him a fresh sense of purpose and force him to introspect and bring out the player that we have spent so many nights just watching in awe. New challenges will get Messi to reinvent himself and maybe even learn new things about himself although he is walking into the twilight of his career.

When a player been at one club for so long and he gets too comfortable, there are several trappings that they could fall into and by the looks of it, the current predicament that Barcelona and Messi find themselves in is not helping either party and it's high time that both parted ways.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith