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Lionel Messi arrived in Catalonia 20 years ago as a small, shy, and awkward teenager. His immense talent offset his lack of self-confidence, and his entire Barcelona career has been accompanied by advisors and mentors who have ensured that his introverted personality has not restricted his performances on the field.
Over the course of the next two decades, and still to the present day, Lionel Messi has dominated the world game. He has naturally matured as a person, but he remains a private family man. The difference now is that he is content in his personal life, but this solid foundation has encouraged him to challenge aspects of his professional life that need to be repaired.
Lionel Messi remains pivotal to Barcelona
With damning press reports emerging from the Camp Nou this week that contract negotiations have collapsed, Lionel Messi could leave Barcelona next year. It is a situation the club know they must do everything in their power to avoid, while the Argentine magician is more than aware that he holds all the cards in this particular political battle.
Once an easily-influenced figure, Lionel Messi has complied with Barcelona throughout his career, ensuring the bond between the two institutions remains firm. He has a genuine love for the club and the fans, but the club name and badge is only a front for the current club custodians, and for the first time Lionel Messi no longer has influential figures in his corner that he can turn to.
There is no doubt that Barcelona has lost its way off the field in recent years. Coinciding with the organic dispersion of Pep Guardiola's dream team, great players have not been replaced by those of equal quality, and neither has Guardiola himself. New managers and players have revolved around Lionel Messi since 2012, but none have found the formula to match his longevity.
Now, Lionel Messi is not only speaking out, but his actions are speaking louder than his words. His unrest is testament to the failings of his club, and no President of Barcelona will want to be the person responsible for letting their hero leave. Josep Maria Bartomeu is the current incumbent who must negotiate this issue for the sake of his own reputation as much as anything else.
The Lionel Messi support network
Just as his family remained close to his side during his early years at the club, until now Lionel Messi has always had a strong personal and professional support network in his corner when such contract decisions have had to be made. His demands have been treated with respect, and each action taken at his request has served only to add to his power within the corridors of the Camp Nou.
To understand Lionel Messi's influence at Barcelona, it is important to understand the key figures who have influenced him during his time at the club. To appreciate their influence on Lionel Messi is to understand the positions that they held, and most importantly, how they are no longer there to guide him through this latest boardroom dispute.
The influential figures of Lionel Messi's Barcelona
Joan Laporta served as Barcelona President between 2003 and 2010, a pivotal time in the career of Lionel Messi. He appointed Frank Rijkaard and the duo witnessed the start of Lionel Messi's career as he emerged through the youth ranks to make his senior competitive debut as a teenager in 2005. His immediate impression resulting in regular contract reviews as the world became aware of his talent.
Pep Guardiola replaced Frank Rijkaard in 2008, and over the course of the next four years he created a team around Lionel Messi that is now considered one of the greatest of all time. Revolutionising the modern game, it was the defining period in Lionel Messi's career. Assisted and eventually replaced by the late Tito Vilanova, it was a period that established the latest chapter in the Barcelona DNA.
Included in this project from 2003 was Director of Football Txiki Begiristain, but overseeing, observing and commentating on this entire process was Johan Cruyff, the single most influential figure in the history of Barcelona. While he may not have held any official title in his later years, his legacy demanded that the need for his approval dictated what path the club should follow.
“Johan Cruyff painted the chapel, and Barcelona coaches since merely restore or improve it,” said Pep Guardiola in 2012.
It was Johan Cruyff who advised Joan Laporta to appoint Frank Rijkaard, Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola. Each and every word in the press from Johan Cruyff on the state of any Barcelona team was carefully considered by the players, the manager and the board.
How Lionel Messi was left alone
Frank Rijkaard and his assistant Henk Ten Cate left the club in 2008. Joan Laporta and Txiki Begiristain stepped away in 2010. Pep Guardiola followed in 2012. Tito Vilanova passed away in April 2014 at the age of just 45. Johan Cruyff died two years later. Along with Charly Rexach, the man who famously signed Lionel Messi on a paper napkin that now sits in the club museum, the most influential figures in his career are now gone.
And it is no coincidence that since 2016 there have been rumours of unrest. No longer seeking the approval of Johan Cruyff and with none of his disciples at the helm, the standards expected at Barcelona have shifted away from the foundations that the glory years were built upon. Lionel Messi is one veteran player who has witnessed this shift, and remembers a better time.
Without the aforementioned figures, Lionel Messi must trust his own professional instincts when considering the current state of Barcelona. There is a negative feeling over the future direction of the club, and the false promises over signings that never materialised serve only to justify the lack of trust that now seems to exist between the player and the club.
One cannot help but think that a word from Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola, Txiki Begiristain or Tito Vilanova could change Lionel Messi's mindset, and channel his frustration into positive action to put right the breakdown of this long-standing relationship. But Lionel Messi now walks alone at Barcelona, and he appears to be walking away from the Camp Nou.
