Set against the backdrop of their current troubles — and you can choose whether accusations of trying to influence refereeing decisions, being in a precarious financial state or needing to abandon the Camp Nou for a couple of seasons due to renovations is the more damaging here — it would be easy to dismiss rumours of Barcelona trying to repatriate Lionel Messi as little more than useful distraction tactics to divert attention away from their increasingly bleak situation. Smoke and mirrors and Messi, if you like.

So it comes as an interesting twist in the tale to find — as I'm extremely confident is the case — that the entire idea of him re-signing for Barca is being driven by Messi himself.

As has almost always been the case, the World Cup-winning Argentina captain has the world at his feet. Paris Saint-Germain want him to renew his contract, which expires this summer, fearing the idea of being denuded by his departure. Money is no object when it comes to their overtures.

MLS side Inter Miami know that Messi has long been working on a package deal to buy significant shares in the club and, in due course, play there. Yet Messi also knows there's now a significant sum on offer (reportedly north of $300 million) if he chooses to play in Saudi Arabia and set up another series of battles with Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo and "who's better?" snooze-fests while the Saudis compete to host the World Cup in 2030.

But it was the 35-year-old genius, who departed Camp Nou in tears nearly two seasons ago after a flood of trophies, goals and general brilliance, who decided that his first option was to go "home."

When current Barcelona vice-president Rafa Yuste confirmed "contact with Messi's people" a fortnight ago, he framed his answer as if he, personally, had a thorn in his side about how things had ended. In a sense, it sounded like Yuste wanted to persuade Messi to have a Michael Jordan "Last Dance" experience because "beautiful stories should end well." It sounded as if Barca, despite being in the middle of an almost all-consuming institutional mess, were the ones with the vision, humility and daring to try and put right the horrible, cold-hearted fracture they themselves had inflicted on the relationship between the Camp Nou club and its prodigal son.

(Just in case you've forgotten what happened: Back in 2021, Messi agreed to cut his salary by 50% in order to help Barcelona to renew his expiring contract, flying to Camp Nou from his holiday in Ibiza thinking a deal had been struck. Except he soon discovered that club president Joan Laporta had completely changed his position, that there was no new contract and that, in effect, Barca had unceremoniously dumped their greatest ever footballer.)