The Lionel Messi love story with Barcelona is definitively over. The door has been slammed firmly shut and the sooner culers move on and look forward, the better.
It was always just a romantic notion that he would come back to the club and can anyone honestly say that they believed it was going to happen?
At least this way, his legacy is preserved.
It wouldn’t have been the same and if Leo was unable to bring about further success, who is to say that his name wouldn’t have been tarnished in the eyes of those watching him every week?