Jermaine Beckford shares what he’s heard about Lionel Messi and Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa
Jermaine Beckford has heard a rumour that Lionel Messi wants to play for Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa.
On Thursday, the football world was rocked by the news that Messi, 34, has left Barcelona after spending his entire professional career with the Spanish giants.
It now remains to be seen where Messi will play next and Beckford seems to think Leeds might have a chance due to the Bielsa connection.
“I’ll be honest with you, to have the opportunity to watch Messi play in the Premier League week in, week out [would be] dream come true moments,” Beckford told talkSPORT, as shown on their official Twitter account.
“However, I don’t know if he’s going to be cut out for it every single week. He’s 34 now, I know it’s very controversial but I would have preferred to have seen him in his prime, three, four, five years ago, to show the world exactly how great he is.
“We all know he’s amazing but if he did end up coming here, we’d kind of know it’s for a payday, a little bit. “
Beckford added: “There are only a certain number of clubs who can afford him and we all know the names that we’re talking about: the Manchester Citys, possibly the Manchester Uniteds, PSGs.
“Maybe Leeds – who knows? That would be good.
“I’ve heard a rumour that Messi would love to work with Bielsa.”
Is he… serious?
If you haven’t already, watch the clip. Beckford genuinely looks as though he’s being serious when he’s saying this.
Messi may well want to play for Bielsa but at Leeds? Definitely not.
It’s not every often we talk our great club down but there’s no way we’d be able to attract one of the best players of all time to Elland Road when we’ve only just returned to the Premier League and are not in European competition.
Messi’s name was always going to be brought up jokingly in relation to Leeds – but Beckford seems to think it could actually happen based on that rumour he’s heard.
It won’t. Let’s just nip that in the bud right now.
Messi is going to join either one of the Manchester clubs or Paris Saint-Germain because the amount of money he’s demanding is just ridiculous.
Barcelona are in a financial crisis from years of mismanagement and the wages they have thrown at Messi have contributed to that.
We’d like to see him in the Premier League to see what he can do here.
But it won’t be at Leeds. Don’t be ridiculous.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites have made an approach to sign an English forward whose value is rising every time he plays.