How Barcelona are preparing for life after Lionel Messi

Ousmane Dembele is learning from Messi in Barca's attack
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Doyle7 February 2019

Barcelona's transfer policy is geared towards planning for life after Lionel Messi - but club president Josep Maria Bartomeu insists the Argentine legend's retirement is "a while away yet".

Messi, 31, is Barcelona's talisman, scoring 581 goals for the Spanish giants, winning 10 LaLiga titles and four Champions Leagues in a hugely successful career at Camp Nou.

The Argentina forward has remained a one-club man despite being linked with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City in the past, and looks increasingly likely to remain at Barca for the rest of his professional career.

Since selling Neymar to PSG in summer 2017, Barca have spent big on players aged 25 years old or younger such as Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Arthur, Malcom and Clement Lenglet, with Ajax's 21-year-old midfield star Frenkie De Jong agreeing a £67million deal to join the Blaugrana this summer.

While Barca are top of LaLiga and have qualified for the last-16 of the Champions League along with a Copa del Rey semi-final run, Ernesto Valverde's side have increasingly relied upon Messi to turn games around - particularly the second legs of Copa ties, with Messi being rested in first-leg defeats.

EPA/Alberto Estevez

While Messi shows no signs of winding down just yet, Barca president Bartomeu has indicated that the club's transfer activity in recent windows shows that there is a long-term strategy in place which includes life without their star man.

"I know one day Lionel will say he's retiring," Bartomeu told BBC 5 live Football Daily Podcast.

"We have to prepare the club for the future. We are bringing great young players to the team because we need to continue this era of success. That's our responsibility.

"My mandate will be finished in two seasons. So I need to leave the club in a great position and tell the new president 'that's our legacy'."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in