#3 The Champions League wouldn’t be the same again
Europe’s elite club competition may already boast the finest range of players and sides in world football, blended with an exciting format and sense of unpredictability, but the tournament’s trump card, for the last decade at least, has been Lionel Messi.
The Argentinian has not only scored the second highest number of goals in the competition’s history (93), but he is the iconic face of the Champions League having lifted the trophy on four occasions and holding the record as the first player to have scored in two Champions League final matches for the winning team.
It may be a little short-sighted to suggest that a whole tournament’s reputation and integrity will be dealt a blow because of the departure of one player, but not when that one player is Lionel Messi. If the world’s best player is not playing in the Champions League, the tournament loses a layer of reputability.
Messi has been a benchmark for the competition, with iconic moments from the kissing of his boot to his decisive goal at the 2011 final. Messi has always been at the heart of the competition and the Champions League would ultimately be a different contest without him involved.
