Barcelona's financial issues are clearly catching up to them. According to Spanish outlet Marca, Lionel Messi and the club have hit a stalemate in contract negotiations and it appears he will be leaving the club after 17 seasons.
đ¨ OFFICIAL STATEMENT #Messi
âDespite having reached an agreement between Barça and Leo Messi and with the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, it will not be possible to formalize due to economic and structural obstacles (Spanish LaLiga regulations)â. pic.twitter.com/9P7YAdbYBq
â Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 5, 2021
This is obviously horrific news for Barca and its supporters. Other reports coming out of Spain claim that the situation between Lionel Messi and the Spanish giants is âirreversibleâ:
Lionel Messi's situation at Barcelona is "irreversible". He is "more out of Barca than ever" and "does not like the current squad". He communicated this to the club yesterday upon his return to the city. All being reported right now on Catalan radio station RAC1.
â Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) August 5, 2021
As noted in the tweet above, Messi had made it known that he's not keen on the current squad that Joan Laporta has built around the Argentine. Now, he will be able to sign with any club he desires in world football.
Per Marca's report, Lionel Messi's representatives met with Barcelona to discuss the situation on Thursday, and now it appears that Laporta is trying to figure out how to relay the bad news to fans and his teammates.
While Messi was adamant about leaving the club last summer, he finally resolved things with Barca when they fired ex-president Josep Bartomeu, who the Argentina international was not fond of.
This whole saga with Lionel Messi is absolutely shocking, but it looks like his time at Camp Nou has come to an abrupt ending. In 778 appearances for Barcelona, Messi bagged 672 goals and supplied 305 assists.