Why would Messi ever consider leaving Barcelona?

Messi happy to stay at home until the end / Image via cbssports.com

Arguing that tax fraud charges may urge Lionel Messi to leave Barcelona is simply poor judgment.

The 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or winner is synonymous with Barcelona, with the club’s philosophy and values that are embedded in their mutual DNA to ever think about leaving.

It has nothing to do with whether he may do it somewhere else, on a cold winter’s night in Stoke in example, it has to do with the fact that the Argentine star thinks of Barcelona as his home and leaving home has never been an option for him.

Several European giant have been hoping for some time that they would be able to convince Messi to join them, placing their trust in the tax evasion scandal to ruin Messi’s desire to stay in the Catalan club.

Tax Evasion

The Barcelona star and his father have been charged with three counts of tax fraud dating back to the period between 2007 and 2009, but Leo Messi has a firm stance on the matter that as a football player he was not in the wrongdoing with the stuff he did not understand.

Messi and his father are due to appear before the Catalan Superior Court of Justice sometime between May 31 and June 3, and Messi is convinced he would not be faced with similar punishment as his teammate Javier Mascherano, who has been sentenced to a year in prison for his own tax problems.

Manchester City have been in the front row, monitoring the situation and Sergio Aguero was being deployed as an insider to try and convince his compatriot to consider moving to the Premier League.

Manchester

Aguero himself made the switch from La Liga to Premier League back in 2011 and the Argentine striker believes Manchester would be a perfect place for a guy like Leo Messi.

“We play every three days and just eat and rest between games so the English weather is not really the issue. I told him that Manchester is ideal as a city because you stay at home and we can be together all the time”, Aguero was quoted telling ESPN.

Manchester United were also mentioned as an option, with their sponsor Adidas reportedly willing to play the part in making the deal happen.

But Leo Messi, who has won his jaw-dropping fifth Ballon d’Or on 11 January at the FIFA gala in Zurich has no dilemmas about his future.

Family Matters

Struggling to fight off early problems and growth issues, young Leo Messi was welcomed to Barcelona where he found his second family in 2001.

After a single year playing for Barcelona C and Barcelona B, Leo was quick to announce himself into the first team and has been the Catalan’s club mainstay ever since 2004.

In his 12 seasons for Blaugrana so far, Leo Messi has amassed 505 appearances in all competitions and scored as many as 431 goals, crushing host of records in the process, becoming the living legend of the Catalan Club, which is considering constructing the new museum wing just for their star player.

Messi’s fifth Ballon d’Or was last week placed in Barcelona’s museum as the Argentine star’s space in the museum got a little bit tighter with the fifth Golden Ball being added to the already exposed collection of his awards and accolades.

Thirst for Trophies

Messi’s thirst for trophies is the main force that leads him forward, but the Argentine is happy to continue winning the silverware for his club, despite having already won everything he could. He doesn’t need a new club to get new challenge as he is perfectly happy where he is right now.

The 28-year-old has been repeatedly touted to make a move away from the Camp Nou, and even his own claims will not be enough to stop the rumour mill from spinning.

“I have always said that Barcelona is my home. I could never play for another European club other than Barcelona”, Messi told France Football admitting that he would like to play in Argentina at the end of his career.

Messi had a difficult 2015 which was marked with injury problems, but Argentine is once again back to his best.

Having lead his team to the historic success of five major titles last season, Messi and Barcelona have set their course on retaining the La Liga title and are currently standing at 2/9 to lift the domestic trophy at the end of the season.

And it would not be Messi’s last with Barcelona, that is for sure.