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Lionel Messi says life, soccer 'will never be the same again' after COVID-19 pandemic

Lionel Messi does not know what the world will look like when the COVID-19 pandemic is in the rearview mirror, but he does believe that life and soccer “will never be the same again.

Messi spoke with El Pais ahead of the La Liga restart, currently scheduled for June 11. His Barcelona club has a two-point advantage over Real Madrid to lead the league.

Messi on life after COVID-19

Messi’s full comments to El Pais:

“Most of us are left with doubts about what the world is going to be like after everything that has happened. Beyond the confinement and the situation that took us by surprise, many people had a really hard time because this situation affected them in some way, as it happened with all those who lost their family and friends and could not even see them.

“I think there were a lot of negative things in this crisis, but there can be nothing worse than losing the people you love the most, that creates enormous frustration for me and seems to me the most unfair thing of all.

“Soccer, like life in general, I think will never be the same.”

Spain experienced one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus with more than 239,000 confirmed cases and 27,127 deaths. The number has dropped precipitously since the high in early April.

Lionel Messi doesn't expect the world to go 'back to normal.' (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Lionel Messi doesn't expect the world to go 'back to normal.' (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Messi: normal will change

Messi noted that soccer will be different in a financial way given the upheaval undergone by companies around the globe. And it will take some getting used to the new way of doing things. Players in La Liga will be tested for the coronavirus regularly and anyone who tests positive will be quarantined.

Said Messi, via ESPN:

“I am sure that football and sport, in general, will be affected. Financially, because there are companies linked with the world of sport that will maybe experience some difficulties because of the coronavirus.

“But also professionally, because with the return to training and competing, what was normal before now is going to be different. It will be a strange situation for us as athletes but also for anyone that has to change their usual work dynamic.”

There are 11 games left in the La Liga season. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last week gave the league the go-ahead to begin games anytime after June 8. There will be no fans in attendance.

Germany’s Bundesliga was the first of Europe’s big five men’s leagues to return to play. England’s Premier League and Italy’s Serie A are scheduled to return in June as well.

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