Messi wants Barcelona return

Football legend Lionel Messi wants to make a sensational summer return to FC Barcelona and leave Paris Saint Germain with his camp having already sounded out the potential move, according to reports.

Minutes before Barca took to the Camp Nou pitch to face Osasuna in La Liga on Sunday, Gerard Romero claimed that the Argentine's father and representative Jorge Messi rang the board to ask about a prodigal son Chapter Two for the club's greatest ever player a few days ago.

This perhaps occurred after current employers' PSG's embarrassing loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League's last 16-second leg, where the Qatari-backed Ligue 1 giants once more succumbed to a stunning comeback on the continent thanks to a Karim Benzema hat trick.

In the meantime, however, Messi, along with fellow former Barca colleague Neymar, has been booed by his own fans at the Parc des Princes when PSG beat Bordeaux at the  weekend

Considering Romero's scoop, some have also rushed to suggest this is why president Joan Laporta threw cold water on a potential $338.5mn move for Erling Haaland when probed on the matter.

"Mateu Alemany, Jordi Cruyff and the staff are working on [signings]," Laporta said via Esport3. "I understand the fans are excited, but there are operations that are very difficult.

"Even if our financial situation is the best it could possibly be, there are some deals that we would still not do for the sake of the club. We won't do any deals that place the club's [future] at risk," Laporta concluded. Could Messi be Barca's marquee summer signing after all, then? Romero says that "much more information is expected about Messi's future and his return to Barcelona in the coming weeks."

Leaving his boyhood club in tears as a free agent before this season, as Barca could not offer him a new deal and navigate a strict La Liga salary cap, Messi is still under contract at PSG until next year but could force an exit.