After asking the president of FC Barcelona if the newly-renovated Camp Nou will have a Lionel Messi statue, the answer that comes back encapsulates the mood around the club after the midweek win over Liverpool.
‘No, it will have 10!’ says Josep Bartomeu laughing. ‘We’ve got one of Ladislao Kubala. We’re working on one of Johan Cruyff. And the day that Messi retires — well, I won’t be president because he’ll outlast me. He has so much football still to give.’
No one at the club wants to contemplate Messi’s retirement and even more so as Barca’s president sits down with The Mail on Sunday 24 hours after the Argentine’s dismantling of Liverpool.
‘I still think it’s a long way off,’ says Bartomeu. ‘He’s only 31. Look at the power in that free kick. He’s a long way out and that ball really flies. He’s stronger than ever.’ Barcelona are due to begin rebuilding the Camp Nou in the summer of 2020.
‘That will be flattened,’ says Bartomeu as he looks out of his office window at the club’s Mini Estadi across the road. It has hosted Barcelona B-team matches since 1982. It will be replaced by a new arena for the club’s basketball, handball, roller hockey and indoor football teams. In total, the renovation work could end up totalling £510million.
Everything should be finished by 2023. That sounds like the perfect distraction for fans trying not to think about Messi’s retirement – he’ll be 35.