Are Barcelona teasing Lionel Messi's return?! Blaugrana send fans into frenzy with strange AI-generated images of Argentine superstar's iconic celebrations

• Messi currently in America with Inter Miami
• Barcelona fans desperate for return
• Club tease on Instagram account

WHAT HAPPENED? Messi left the Nou Camp in 2021 as the club simply couldn't afford to pay his astronomical wages amid significant financial difficulties. However, a return to Catalonia has always been talked about with fans wanting to see the Argentine don the famous red and blue one last time. Barcelona themselves have done nothing to quell these discussions, posting four AI-generated images on their Instagram account subliminally featuring Messi's iconic celebrations made up of planets and stars in the night sky.

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Messi is contracted to Inter Miami through to 2025 but there's every chance he returns to Europe on loan when the MLS season ends, just as the likes of David Beckham and Robbie Keane did a decade or so ago. Injury could keep him out of the MLS playoffs, in the unlikely event Miami make it, meaning it's going to be some time before he returns to the field in America, making a fleeting European return relatively likely.

WHAT NEXT FOR MESSI? Currently sidelined through a mystery injury, he'll likely be watching on as Inter Miami take on Cincinatti in the early hours of Sunday morning.