ADÉU, LEO
As Lionel Messi boarded his private jet in Ibiza to return to Barcelona, he believed he would be signing the contract that would allow him to see out his career at the Nou Camp.
His first flight to the Catalan capital had been as a 13-year-old, in 2000, when he slept on the journey from Buenos Aires ahead of a trial at Barca. So fearful were the club that the talented teenager may have signed elsewhere, director Charly Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered a written contract on a paper napkin.
Fast-forward 21 years and there would be no paper napkin and no contract offer; there could not be. The Argentine was told by club president Joan Laporta that, after a club-record 778 first-team appearances and a clubrecord 672 goals (a figure so absurd, it is higher than the sums of the second, third and fourth highest scorers for the club combined), there would be no more. There could be no
