Aguero talks Messi, Lewandowski, Dembele, Laporta, Real Madrid-Mbappe saga

Sergio Aguero may have spent a very short time at Barcelona as a player last season, but the Argentine icon endeared himself to the fans during that period.

An unfortunate heart issue forced the striker into retirement earlier this year. However, he has recovered from the issue and has resumed training and even participated in training with the Barcelona team on their United States pre-season tour.

The former Argentine international is quite active on streaming platforms and participated in an interview recently, during which he spoke about various topics ranging from the arrival of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona, to the departure of Messi last year.

Barça have a plethora of attacking players now that they have added Raphinha, and Lewandowski and re-signed Ousmane Dembele. When asked if there is a sense of overbooking in the attacking department, Aguero said:

“It’s a good strategy. Injuries exist in football. It’s a style from Pep, who always has several players available for each position. Sometimes I couldn’t play for Man City, and Gabriel Jesus could play or De Bruyne as a false 9.

“To compete in La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League, Xavi needs variants in each of the positions.”

Talking about his condition, Aguero happily admitted that he had started running and training and even joked that he will be available if Xavi wants to add him to the Barcelona squad.

“Now I’ve started running and training to see if Barça will sign me again. I will say this to Xavi: ‘If you want, I’m available to play’ and maybe he says he’ll sign me and he’ll have another striker, as he’s now signing a lot of forwards,” he joked.

Hailing the signing of Lewandowski, Aguero said: “What Lewandowski did at Bayern will have to be shown at Barcelona. For me, the Bundesliga is at a lower level than the Premier League and La Liga. But even so, the German league is strong.”

Talking about Dembele, the former Barcelona striker added: “I really like the way Dembélé plays.”

During the stream, Aguero also aimed a dig at Barça’s arch-rivals Real Madrid for their failure to sign Kylian Mbappe from PSG, after having been chasing him for years together.

“Did you see that Real Madrid signed Mbappé?” he said while laughing, before adding, “Ibai [streamer] was always telling me ‘Mbappé, Mbappé, Mbappé’… ‘Mbappé will sign for Real Madrid’… How many years have Madrid fans been waiting for Mbappé? More than three years?”

Talking about his move to Barcelona last summer, Aguero confirmed that he did not even hesitate for even a second before accepting the offer. He also added that he turned down better offers from Italy to move to Catalonia.

“When I finished my contract with Manchester City, they told me that Barça had sent me an offer and I didn’t even think about it.”

Aguero also touched upon the circumstances of Lionel Messi’s exit from Barcelona last summer. He admitted to have made a financial sacrifice to play with his compatriot and was disappointed to see him leave. “I was very sad, but that’s football,” he said.

The former Manchester City superstar also revealed that he had received an offer to leave Barça a week after Messi’s exit. However, he was told by president Joan Laporta that the club did not want to sell him and were keen for him to stay.

“A week after Messi left, a team sent me an offer and was willing to pay my release clause. And I had only been at the club for a few weeks. I was surprised and I told my agent to confirm with Laporta this offer,” he said.

“Laporta told me it was all lies, including the rumours that they wanted to sell me after Messi didn’t renew. Laporta told me that they wanted me to stay.”

Further talking about the treatment of Messi and footballers in general by clubs, Aguero said that football clubs are like companies and players are like objects to them.

“In football, we as players give everything for the club, but in the end the club always has the power over everything and they have to make decisions. The club is a company that has to look at various issues. It sounds bad, but for me that’s the reality.”