Don't be ridiculous, occasionally yes, Barca can win without him but take away his 29 goals he has scored this season in Liga and Barca is a Europa League team at best.
Barca without Messi would still finish top 4 with every player knowing that have to put in that much more effort. A bit like Portugal without Cristiano where everyone knows they can and have to be involved more since everything would no longer be centered around Messi. They wouldn't run away with La Liga like they have for much of the past few seasons but Champions League futbol would still be on the agenda every season. Looking at current Liga standings... 66 - FC Barcelona 56 - Atletico Madrid 54 - Real Madrid 46 - Getafe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ Champions League 44 - Alaves 43 - Sevilla - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ Europa League 40 - Valencia Yeah, Barca w/o Messi would still qualify for Champions League. Despite some people's belief in this forum, Barca have a lot of quality players that other elite clubs would dearly love to have. The coach isn't too shabby, either.
Time will tell. Without Messi but a better coach and board Barca would make the top four eventually and even win Liga. Imagine Barca would have signed Mbappe when he was offered to Barca instead of going for a flopp like Coutinho and always injured Dembélé then I'd start believing.
I don't recall Mbappe being offered to Barca. Even if his club had offered him to Barca he would have nixed the deal. He wanted to go to Madrid.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/en.one...ppe-was-offered-to-barcelona-this-summer/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/tribuna.com/amp/fcbarcelona/en/news/3092386/
Well, that's just one agent's insistence which I don't believe. Playing for Zidane would have been the bigger lure for the young Frenchman and he knows he would have arrived at Camp Nou being in Messi's shadow. All indications at the time had the player himself saying he wanted to go to Madrid. I never believed Barca had a shot at him.
Nice Spanish-centric summary of 10 ovations for opposing players through the years, featuring 6 times a Barca player was the one getting cheers from the opposing team's fans: https://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/2019/03/18/5c8fc3f3ca4741406e8b45a3.html TL/DR Messi x2, Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Maradona (plus Del Piero, Totti, real and also fake Ronaldo)
Yeah, that agent is an interesting guy, see story, but he never rep'd Mbappe, so I think it's fake news: https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/...ht-maradona-stoichkov-and-messi-to-barcelona/
Regarding Mbappe, great talent no doubt. But over the weekend against Marseille Di Maria was on a brace looking for a hat trick when Mbappe was fouled in the area. Kylian grabbed that ball and never gave it a thought. He promptly had his spot kick saved. Barca don't need that selffish type of mentality around, especially when we've seen Messi letting others take penalties when there's a need.
He'd be fine in a club where he doesn't think he is bigger than. And to be honest, his probable obsession with the golden boot is no less individualistic as another player's wish to get a hat-trick.