Smearing a giant the Barca way

Barcelona and Lionel Messi -- the two names have always been synonymous and the 33-year-old left-footed genius had limitless moments of greatness with the Blaugrana.

And during the course of the 20 seasons that he played for Barcelona -- 17 of them in the first team -- Messi had scored 634 goals, winning a total of 34 trophies together with the Catalan club. But all of it now seems to have come to an end. At least from Messi's part. The Barcelona-Messi relation that had started when the 13-year-old prodigy signed a contract on a paper napkin, now ends in the form of a formal letter, a burofax, sent by the Argentine to Barcelona on Tuesday stating his intentions of leaving the club immediately triggering the clause on his contract that allows him to walk out for free.

It has only turned uglier since then. Only a few hours left [at the time of writing this report] till Barcelona started their first training session under newly appointed head coach Ronald Koeman -- the Catalan side were supposed to train at 17:30 local time. And it is certain that Messi, the best player the club ever had, will not attend the training session as it was made apparent by the Argentine when he did not show up for Sunday's PCR tests -- a prerequisite for attending Monday's training session.

The fallout between Messi and Barcelona is not anything random but a result of a series of events that has happened over the years.

The bleak and humiliating nights at Rome, Liverpool had followed the most humiliating defeat in the club's history in the Champions League -- crashing out to eventual champions Bayern Munich after an 8-2 thumping at Lisbon this season. And Messi, who has been witnessing the cracks grow and without a shadow of a sporting project, has seen enough.

The 8-2 humiliation at the hands of Bayern could well be Messi's last ever game for Barcelona. But Messi, who has many a time single-handedly carried Barcelona to glory and has given his everything for the club as long as he wore the iconic number 10 shirt, deserves a better farewell off the pitch.

However, even that seems unlikely as Barcelona have rejected Messi's offer to sit and discuss the situation. And after all these years, what Messi is getting is Barcelona's consideration of meeting with him only to discuss terms of his contract renewal and nothing more.

For Messi, such attitude from the club he was always devoted to, is more humiliating than the 8-2 defeat in Lisbon.