Lionel Messi 'Will Do the Impossible' to Rejoin Barcelona, Pep Guardiola Predicts

Pep Guardiola doesn't believe Lionel Messi has played his last game for Barcelona already with the star forward potentially leaving Paris Saint-Germain this summer.

The Manchester City manager told ESPN he believes Messi "will do the impossible" to secure a return to Camp Nou.

"I'm a Barcelona fan, I've got my tickets [at Camp Nou], and I just hope that one day we can say goodbye to him as he deserves," he said. "He's the greatest player of all time."

Guardiola added the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner "deserves to have a farewell for the important figure that he is."

At this point, it appears a foregone conclusion Messi will leave PSG as a free agent. While the club shortened his recent suspension, the saga laid bare the lingering issues between the two parties.

A reunion with Barcelona is theoretically possible for the 35-year-old, and vice president Rafa Yuste said in March the club had been in contact with his representatives.

As much as Barça has done to avert the financial crisis that necessitated Messi's departure in the first place, however, the situation hasn't dramatically improved.

La Liga president Javier Tebas said in March that Barcelona will need to generate €200 million—either through player sales or trimming its wage bill—in order to make new signings. This time around, it won't be as easy as pulling one of the economic "levers" and getting a short-term revenue injection.

Tebas affirmed the situation in April and made it clear La Liga wouldn't relax its rules in order to facilitate Messi's Catalan homecoming.

When the 2022 World Cup winner was on his way out of Barcelona, some wondered whether he could offer to play for free in order to stay. Barça was so deeply in the red even a sacrifice that large wouldn't have helped.

As much as Messi might wish to head back to Spain, his old club will need to first get its ducks in a row, and that's shaping up to be a tall order.