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Lionel Messi continues to dominate the headlines across the football globe, but the Barcelona captain is set to make a final decision about his future at the club.
The 33-year-old’s father and agent, Jorge Messi, has been in Barcelona for talks this week with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu. The two met on Wednesday but their discussions ended with no agreement made, according to Sport.
Messi remains convinced he can leave for free this summer due to a clause in his contract, but the Catalan giants believe the clause expired in June and any departure can only happen if a club plays his €700 million buyout clause.
According to Moises Llorens and Rodrigo Faez at ESPN, Barcelona “are not ruling out” the prospect of Messi staying for one more year and seeing out his contract. The Argentine will “now discuss the situation with his father before deciding on the next step.”
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Messi Comment Fuels Speculation
Jorge Messi has been pursued by reporters since flying in to Barcelona on Wednesday for talks with the club. He was pressed for some words by Deportes Cuatro on the situation and said it would be “difficult, difficult” for his son to stay at the Camp Nou.
The 57-year-old also encountered reporters again on Thursday, and Deportes Cuatro reported Messi’s father confirmed the forward was now considering staying at Barcelona for another year.
Yet that report has since been questioned:
Yesterday’s meeting at Camp Nou is well documented. What happened this morning is a tv crew caught Jorge Messi, Leo’s dad, waiting to get into underground parking. As the reporter asked him ‘are you evaluating seeing out the last year of contract?’ he mumbled a: ‘Si’
Jorge Messi has claimed he didn’t say “yes” to the question of ‘Messi considering staying another year’. He said “I don’t know”. [ser]
Messi Tipped to Stay
Messi is still being tipped to stay at Barcelona despite telling the club he wants to leave and failing to report for PCR testing and pre-season training earlier this week.
Journalist Martin Arevalo at TyC Sports has said that the Argentina international is now “90 percent likely to stay at Barcelona” and will make a final decision on his future on Thursday.
Barcelona’s refusal to sell Messi or enter into any negotiations makes an exit difficult, and it seems the only way the captain can now leave is if he were to enter into a legal battle with his club.
Given his long history with Barcelona it seems highly unlikely Messi would want to end his career with the Catalan giants in a Spanish court, meaning he could well decide his best option currently is to see out his current contract.
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