Barcelona can afford to sell Messi says Johan Cruyff

As Barcelona have completed the signing of Neymar from Santos, the Dutch Legend and former Barça player Johan Cruyff believes Barcelona should consider selling Lionel Messi.

Cruyff deems, it could prove costly for Barcelona, as they are trying to re-build a team around two star characters. Cruyff, had represented the Catalan Club 143 times with 48 goals to his name and manager them till 1996.


The Dutch legend would be highly carped for his opinion given that Messi is considered the best player in the world and is among their top scorers with an amazing 215 goals in 246 games at Barcelona, but is also pretty firm on the fact that there could be a clash of egos when the Argentine and Brazilian play in tandem. After all too many cooks spoil the food.

“With Neymar on board, I would have planned for the possibility of selling Messi, and some would agree with that, others not,” Cruyff told Spanish newspaper Marca.

“You are talking about a team, its players, the things around it. There are too many things at stake. That’s why it’s so difficult to manage such a top class squad.

When asked whether he would sign Neymar if he had the opportunity ,Cruyff added: "No, I wouldn’t have signed Neymar. We’ll have to wait and see – it could turn out well or badly. It’s a risk.

“Or the fact that Neymar and Barcelona are with Nike while Leo is with Adidas. These are situations that could cause problems.

“We’ll have to wait and see. He is talented but we’ll have to see how he gets on with everyone – that’s a problem.”