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BARCELONA. — Barcelona’s all-time top scorer Lionel Messi has returned to training following his failed attempt to force a move away from the club.
Messi, 33, submitted a transfer request on 25 August but said last Friday he would stay because it is “impossible” for any team to pay his release clause.
It is the first time the Argentine has trained with his team-mates since the arrival of new manager Ronald Koeman.
Barcelona begin their La Liga campaign against Villarreal on 27 September.
Messi failed to attend the club’s testing for Covid-19 on 30 August and has been absent from training since sending a fax informing the club of his wish to exercise a clause in his contract which he believed would allow him to leave for free with immediate effect.
Both Barcelona and La Liga insisted that clause was no longer valid – with any club wishing to buy him required to pay a release clause of 700m euros (£624m).
La Liga president Javier Tebas said at the launch of the 2020-21 La Liga season on Monday he was “never seriously worried” Messi would leave Barcelona this summer.
“We want Messi to be with us. He is the best player in the history of football and we want him to end his career in La Liga,” said Tebas.
“He has been with us for 20 years and we are so pleased he is staying with us and not going to another league.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona have established a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent.
Barcelona compete in Psyonix’s Rocket League and Konami’s eFootball PES, two football titles.
According to a release, FC Barcelona will “engage in deep communication” with Tencent regarding its efforts in esports. This includes “esports competitions, esports education and industry exchange in the future with a view to exploring the many possibilities of collaboration between sports and esports.”
Earlier this year, it was reported that the football club were looking to enter Chinese League of Legends.
An alliance with Tencent could be a good start to make that a reality, considering it co-owns TJ Sports — the company that operates the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) with Riot Games.
Concrete details surrounding the agreement, other than its existence, have not been made public at this time.
Tencent’s stake in major players in esports is worth noting, it owns 100 percent of League of Legends developer Riot Games, 84.3 percent of Clash Royale developer Supercell, 40 percent of Fortnite developer Epic Games, 11.5 percent of PUBG developer Bluehole, five percent of Rainbow Six Siege developer Ubisoft, and five percent of Call of Duty and Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard.
Esports Insider said ‘’details for this agreement are foggy beyond the dialogue that has been opened so it’s hard to judge it so far. However, with reports of Barca’s intent to enter League of Legends and Tencent’s ownership of Riot Games — it’s not unimaginable that the football club’s plan could come into fruition.’’ — BBC/esportsinsider.com.
Online Reporter