Messi, a wound that won't heal

Leo Messi caught everyone off guard, including the club, when he posted on his Instagram account Monday morning about his nighttime visit to Camp Nou with a message proclaiming his love for Barça, but which also carried a deeper meaning. No matter how much the club now tries to portray Messi's stroll through the stadium under construction as normal, it doesn't hold water, because the first sign that it was anything but normal is that the club was unaware of the player's intentions. And this isn't just any player; he's the best in history, who left in tears after being sacked by Laporta, and who continues to make it clear that the wound is still fresh.

The impact of Messi's post is global, with stratospheric view counts, so the rift between him and the current board, headed by Joan Laporta, has also been globally evident. This rift is no longer with the club he loves, to which he continues to profess affection and gratitude, but rather with the current board. The Argentine neither forgets nor forgives, and the phrase "I hope one day I can return, and not just to say goodbye as a player, as I never could..." has a touch of malice. There's a clear intention to show that he's still hurt by Laporta—who was in Vigo while Leo was stepping onto the new Camp Nou pitch—however spontaneous the idea of stopping by and asking the security guard at the gate if he could come in was.

I don't know if the star is aiming deeper and if his visit, post, and message have electoral purposes, but it's worth remembering that it was the president who used him, not the other way around. When he announced during his campaign that he would sort out the Messi situation with a barbecue, the player went to vote accompanied by his children, and the last image before this Instagram post was of a Leo unable to stop crying, asking his wife for a tissue at the press conference where he said goodbye. In short, it's understandable that he feels betrayed, and that he continues to make his decision public four years later. But the fact that Barça insists on covering it up and pretending it's normal for a legend like him to show up unannounced in the middle of the night at what was his home is simply unbelievable.