Lionel Messi is all set to stay at Barcelona and see out the remainder of his contract in order to avoid a legal dispute with the club that could ruin his legacy.
The 33-year-old has been in a stand-off with Barca ever since he told club executives he wanted a transfer this summer.
His father, Jorge, has refuted Barca’s claims that a £624m release clause in his contract is still valid.
That has led to La Liga offering a counter argument, insisting that Messi cannot leave on a free transfer and that Barcelona would be due the transfer fee were he to sign for another club.
The dispute has turned public over the past week after Messi’s father sat down with president Josep Maria Bartomeu for crunch talks over his son’s future.
But it appears as though the player has now backed down in the stand-off and will remain in Ronald Koeman’s squad until his contract expires next year.
Why is Messi staying?
According to Argentine outlet TYC Sports, Messi has decided to suck it up at Barca for one last season.
The reason for this is to avoid a long-running legal dispute that could sever emotional ties between him and the club he has represented for almost two decades.
Leaving in this way would have mirrored Neymar’s exit from the Nou Camp, when PSG enacted a hostile transfer of the Brazilian back in 2017 by triggering a £200m release clause Barca considered unreachable.
However, money is also a driving factor.
No club in Europe has the funds to trigger Messi’s current release clause and meet UEFA’s Financial Fair Play obligations – and so the player isn’t going to rebel against a situation that he’s powerless to change.
Messi’s only real chance of securing a move away from Barcelona this summer was to get approval for that free transfer clause.
Without it, very few clubs in the world could afford to pay Barca’s transfer demands and meet the £63m-a-season basic wage Messi currently earns.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola appeared open to a reunion with the Argentine but the Premier League club would likely come under fresh FFP scrutiny from UEFA, even if they had managed to negotiate a supposed cut-price £88.8m deal for the star, plus his contract.
Further issues at Barcelona
Yet Messi’s decision to back down doesn’t absolve the club from drama as the new La Liga season looms.
President Bartomeu, who said he would stand down in order to keep Messi at the club, is now facing accusations of corruption by Catalan police.
Meanwhile, the BBC report that Luis Suarez is on his way to Juventus, having agreed a deal with the Italian giants.
Suarez, like Messi before him, now faces the situation of trying to prise himself out of his contract with Barca.
The 33-year-old’s exit would certainly free up cash for Barca, who could them throw it at Messi if they decide to offer him a fresh deal.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/31YOLzd
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