Barcelona midfielder
Xavi has told
Manchester City to abandon any hope it might retain of ever snatching
Lionel Messi away from the Catalan giants.
By
his own majestic standards Messi, who missed nearly two months of the
season through injury, has struggled to find his best form in recent
weeks, while Barcelona has surrendered the leadership of La Liga to Real
Madrid
The Argentine superstar has scored 230 goals for the club since making
his debut as 17-year-old a decade ago, but has looked ill at ease in
recent weeks as he adjusts to the demands of manager Tata Martino’s
tactics, leading to suggestions that he could be tempted to consider a
new challenge in the summer.
But Xavi insists not even a world-record fee could tempt Barcelona into selling its star man.
“Of course there will always be stories about the best player in the world and in my opinion the best player ever - but
Manchester City and any other team can forget about signing Messi,” Xavi told Goal.
“There
is no transfer fee that could make it a good deal for Barcelona - and
as everybody who knows him knows - he loves the club and has made it
clear he never wants to leave.”
Barcelona heads into the second
leg of its Champions League last-16 tie against City with a healthy
advantage after capitalizing on Martin Demichelis’ red card and holds a
2-0 lead ahead of Wednesday’s return match at Camp Nou.
City was
without Messi’s Argentina teammate Sergio Aguero for the match at the
Etihad Stadium a fortnight ago but the former Atletico Madrid striker is
certain to start this evening and Xavi knows the tie is far from over.
He
added: “It was a god result in Manchester - but we knew at the end of
the game it wasn't over - and all the players know to expect a very
tough 90 minutes.
“They have shown in England that they can
score four or five goals in a game many times, so we have to respect
their attacking talent and the ability of their players.
“We are confident we can progress, but must respect they are an excellent team and the job is not done.”
