Guardiola told ESPN in an interview that Messi's departure from Camp Nou was not the perfect goodbye for a player of his calibre.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is confident Lionel Messi "will do the impossible to return to Barcelona".
Guardiola told ESPN in an interview that Messi's departure from Camp Nou was not the perfect goodbye for a player of his calibre.
Messi will be out of contract this summer and has become the object of desire for Barcelona for the next market.
During the interview, Pep recalled that Messi "has been the greatest player of all time. In the last 12 years or so, Barcelona had a 'boom', and that wouldn't have been possible without him. And I'm not talking about numbers, but rather his involvement in the play, his beauty, his efficiency, his efficiency, everything."
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Messi's departure from the Camp Nou two summers ago was a shock for the Blaugrana.
"I never would have thought that it would end as it did," Guardiola added.
"I'm convinced that president [Joan] Laporta loves Leo, and since he left, he has said [Messi] deserves to have a farewell for the important figure that he is.
"Leo helped our club [Barcelona] become much greater than when he arrived. When a person is so big, you have to say goodbye in the right way. He left because of very difficult financial circumstances for thousands of reasons that I'm not going to get into.
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"I hope the day comes when I'm in my seat [at Camp Nou], and I can stand up and applaud and say goodbye to Leo as he deserves.
"And I know that Joan [Laporta] is going to try, and Leo too, and he and his family will receive all the love that Barcelona fans have for him, with all the gratitude and respect for what he did for the club."
The long-expected departure of Messi from Paris Saint-Germain appears to have been confirmed.
The French club has decided not to renew the Argentine star's contract, according to reports from L’Équipe.
The decision follows Messi's recent unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia, which has been seen as the final straw in a relationship that had been strained for months.