Barcelona is currently sitting atop the table at La Liga Santander and remains in the Champions League, but their players have been away from training for more than two months, and Lionel Messi knows it’s going to feel strange when competitive activity returns.
“When we play again, it will be like starting all over again,” Messi wrote on his Adidas blog. “Technically it will be the same season, but I think that all the teams and players will experience it differently.
Messi discussed questions about how players can handle their fitness on returning from La Liga Santander:
“We’re going to have some time to prepare before the competition starts and we’re also going to recover some important players who were injured.
The COVID-19 pandemic has struck the world in such a way that very few thought possible and Messi himself admitted his surprise at the 2020 events.
“I believe that nobody could anticipate something like this,” he said.
“There were, of course, people who said that there could be global pandemics occurring from time to time, but the truth is that I could never imagine this. Especially not the tremendous impact that it has had practically worldwide.
“We can’t think about what we’ve lost this year, but rather what will come in the future.”
The pandemic has seen both the Copa America and the European Championship postponed, which is a major disappointment for the La Masia graduate as it was an opportunity for him to add to his legendary career international glory.
“Delaying the Copa America was a huge disappointment, but it was logical,” he said. “It was going to be a great event for me this year and I was looking forward to playing in it again. It was hard when I found out about it, but I understood it perfectly.”
He went on, “It’s never easy to live or work with so much uncertainty and we all wondered when we could return to work, but for any footballer maintaining concentration on the pitch is essential.”
