Carles Puyol and Victor Valdes left in 2014. Xavi left in 2015. Dani Alves left in 2016. Andres Iniesta left in 2018. Sergio Busquets is on his way out, so too Gerard Pique. And now, Lionel Messi, the king of kings, the golden ace, seems to be leaving Barcelona as well.
This isn’t how Messi was supposed to leave. He always wanted to end his career at Barca, but he needed to be on a team that would be competitive. This team, under this regime, is going nowhere. It hurts because it could’ve and should’ve ended so much better.