As he watched helplessly while his Barcelona side were ripped to shreds by a blistering Bayern Munich in an 8-2 thrashing, Lionel Messi must have been wondering if he will ever win the Champions League again should he remain at the club.
Messi has experienced some galling exits from Europe's top competition since he last lifted the trophy in 2015, but not even the disastrous defeats to AS Roma or Liverpool in the last two years could compare to this devastating semi-final loss.
This very much felt like the end of an era for a team that dominated world football between 2009 and 2015 and were even more hegemonic in Spain, winning eight of the previous 11 La Liga titles before losing out to Real Madrid this year. The Catalans were knocked out by Atletico Madrid in 2016, out-classed by Juventus in 2017 and then somehow contrived to throw away heavy first-leg leads over Roma and Liverpool in 2018 and 2019 respectively.This humiliation will surely bring the question of whether to stay or not to the fore, particularly with his contract running out next year, meaning he could join a European rival for free.
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