Lionel Messi has been closer than ever to leaving Barcelona, but the club’s hierarchy is planning to take a final leap in the dark.
Everything that’s going around in football seems to have a relationship with Barcelona and Lionel Messi. The Argentine forward wanting to leave the club is by far the biggest transfer story since Cristiano Ronaldo switched to Juventus, and undoubtedly, Messi’s request to go has created an even bigger stir than his counterpart, Ronaldo’s.
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Josep Maria Bartomeu is doing all he can to keep the 33-year-old at the club for several reasons. First, the president doesn’t want to be remembered as one who sold the club’s greatest ever player and more so in a situation wherein he leaves in a circumstance as prevalent. Secondly, the club’s future will be in disarray for long should Messi leave.
With all things being considered, the president is set to meet Jorge Messi, the player’s father and representative on Wednesday, El Desmarque has reported. In what’s likely to be an event where demands will be contrasting, the ball may be in Bartomeu’s court keeping in mind that Messi has a 700 million euros’ release clause, with La Liga backing it too.
Barcelona will look to hold onto its colossal figure by offering a two more year’s extension that’ll include the same exit clause as before, but with the June 10 deadline in practice. Bartomeu will basically buy time for his own good, before ultimately and inevitably conceding his chief post to a different candidate in 2021.
On the flipside, the demands from the Messi entourage seem clearer than ever. The player wants to leave, for free. While there is a chance that the Argentina international actually goes, the prospect of him simply walking away is the last thing imaginable to the Blaugrana fans and more importantly, the scrutinized board.
In what could be his last throw of the die, Bartomeu could pull off his smartest move as Barca president by locking Messi down to a new contract, supposedly with better wages in order to ensure that he walks out before La Pulga does. With La Liga and rest of Europe’s top leagues due to start soon, only time will tell what the future holds for Messi.
Where do you think Messi will be for large parts of the 2020/21 campaign?