Barcelona legend to retire to make way for Messi signing

Barcelona legend Sergio Busquets will hang up his boots at the end of the year to enable Inter Miami to permanently sign Lionel Messi‘s close friend Rodrigo de Paul.

The defensive midfielder has enjoyed an illustrious career, the majority of which was spent at Barcelona. Busquets established himself as one of the game’s finest-ever midfielders in Catalunya, providing the balance in the side that dominated football in the late 2000s to mid-2010s.

Busquets’ tenacity allowed Barcelona’s midfield maestros Xavi and Andres Iniesta to work their magic, but as time went on and his partners in crime left the club, the 37-year-old increasingly showed that he, too, was an expert orchestrator.

In addition to his nine LaLiga and three Champions League trophies, Busquets won a World Cup and European Championship with Spain, among a host of other personal and team accolades.

He left Barcelona in 2023 to follow fellow club legend Lionel Messi to Inter Miami, where he has managed to impress despite his advanced age. His contract expires at the end of the year, and it will not be renewed.

Busquets to make way for De Paul

According to Cope, Busquets will call time on his storied career when he leaves Inter Miami instead of seeking a new challenge elsewhere. A return to Barcelona in a non-playing capacity is ‘not out of the question,’ the report states.

This news should not come as a shock, as it was already rumoured in the summer that Busquets could consider hanging up his boots to allow Inter Miami to sign Rodrigo de Paul.

This was ultimately not necessary because Miami found a creative – and controversial – solution that enabled them to sign the Atletico Madrid star without him occupying one of their limited Designated Player (DP) spots.

Formally, his arrival in Fort Lauderdale was completed on a loan deal with an option to buy. However, it is an open secret that this deal is pretty much guaranteed to be made permanent.

Had Miami already signed him permanently in the summer or included an obligation to purchase him, they would have had to register him as a DP, which would have forced them to offload one of their other DPs, such as Busquets.

Unlike Busquets, Lionel Messi, who was instrumental in attracting compatriot De Paul, is expected to extend his expiring contract with Inter Miami.

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