Messi is now officially a free agent, but Barca are still hopeful
With the contract that Juan Laporta has offered still on the table, the Argentine superstar, who has been awarded Ballon d’Or 6 times, has officially become a free agent as his contract with Barcelona expired on 30 June.
Lionel Messi,
who’s currently with Argentina’s 2020 Copa America squad, has been heavily linked with a move either to
Manchester Cityor
Paris Saint-Germain.
However, the re-appointment of Juan Laporta as the Blaugrana’s president gave the Catalan club’s fans hope to keep their hero at the club as among the first things he did was
offering the Argentine a unique contract offer.
Laporta
told reporters on Wednesday about the Argentine’s situation with the club: "We are doing well but you have to fit a deal into the financial fair play.
"We want him to stay and we are excited for him to stay. I wish I could tell you that Leo is staying but I can't say yet. We are in the process of finding the solution."
The Argentine has been the headline of the club’s news since last summer with
Paris Saint-Germain
and
Manchester City
closely monitoring his situation,
especially with his transfer request rejected by the club last summer.However, Catalan’s former team-mate,
Dani Alves
, warned his team-mate of the ‘possible exit’ in
an interview with the Guardian.
Alves told the Guardian: “I have said to Messi several times: he was born to be a Barcelona player and Barcelona were born to be his club.
“He has given me advice before so I can do the same to him. Once he told me to stay in Barcelona because there wasn’t any place that was better. ‘Where will you be happier?’ he asked me. So I stayed.
“Now I have reminded him of that conversation and that a good friend (him) advised me that Barcelona is the best place ever. I haven’t had an answer from him yet but when you leave Barcelona you realise how good it is. All the players, and I mean everyone, who has left Barcelona have been sorry. All of them regret leaving, irrespective of the reason.”
Trefwoorden:
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