Argentina star, Lionel Messi, has informed Barcelona he wants to leave the club after spending almost two decades with the Spanish giants.
The club confirmed on Tuesday the Argentine sent a document expressing his desire to activate a release clause that would end his contract – which currently runs until next June – and allow him to leave for free this summer.
Messi signed a contract extension in 2017 that committed him to Camp Nou through the 2020-21 season—and made him the world’s highest-earning soccer player on the pitch—a new exit clause was added. It allowed him to leave for nothing this summer as long as he communicated that decision before June 10, 2020.
Barcelona do not agree the clause is still active. It is said to have expired on June 10 – 10 days after the original date of the Champions League final on May 30.
But Messi’s lawyers are arguing that – in the spirit of the deal and good faith – the clause is still active after the rescheduled final on August 23, which was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement comes 11 days after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, one of the worst defeats in the player’s career and in the club’s history.
The defeat capped a difficult season for Barcelona – the first without a trophy since 2007-08 – and ignited one of their worst crises ever.
The news of Messi requesting to leave comes as no surprise after a rocky season at Camp Nou that included a dust-up over the midseason appointment of manager Quique Setién that ended with his dismissal last week; a smear campaign against Messi and his wife, reportedly dialed up by the club itself; and the tipping point, an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich that put an early finish to Barçelona’s Champions League title hopes. It was the first season in 12 years that Messi failed to win a trophy, one for which he took a 70% cut in base pay—$11 million—after the coronavirus pandemic halted play for three months.
Barcelona is planning to pay Messi $92 million this upcoming season—an amount that would help make him the fourth athlete to earn more than $1 billion in career earnings, pre-tax.
About a third of his salary is in the form of performance incentives, which the star forward has been consistently earning, posting 12 consecutive seasons with at least 31 goals and hitting 700 career goals in June, joining Ronaldo as the only active players at that level.
Messi’s name is on top of every conceivable club scoring record and on 34 trophies in the team’s case, including six La Liga and two Champions League titles. He has won the Ballon d’Or a record six times.
Barça manager Ronald Koeman hinted out he hopes Messi would stay, saying, “He is the best player in the world, and the best player in the world you want in your team; you don’t want him playing against you.”
Messi has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards during his time at Barcelona as the top player in the world, and has helped the club win 10 Spanish league titles and four Champions Leagues.
Forbes values Messi at $4.02 billion, and few other teams can afford Messi’s sky-high wages, particularly as clubs face a revenue shortfall while returning to play without fans in the stands amid the pandemic. But Manchester City, and a reunion with manager Pep Guardiola, has emerged as the clear favorite to pry Messi away.
One hurdle: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations, which were established in 2009 to prevent clubs from spending more than they earn and getting into financial problems by doing so. Inter Milan, PSG and Manchester United are the main frontrunners in the 33-year-old player.
