Lionel Messi likely to stay at Barcelona one more year, says Messi’s father and agent

Lionel Messi might stay at FC Barcelona after his father and agent Jorge Messi’s meeting with Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The Blaugrana star previously asked his childhood club to leave this summer.

Since then, multiple European giants expressed their desire to sign the Argentine. Among them, Manchester City was leading the race ahead of Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan or Juventus to sign the 33-year-old player. 

However, it was never easy for him to depart this year due to his massive €700 million (£630m/$825m) release clause. As per the Barcelona board and La Liga authority, his opportunity to leave for free expired two months ago.

According to multiple reports, Lionel Messi is set to stay at Barcelona for the 2020/21 season with the board unwilling to sell the player for anything under his €700million release clause pic.twitter.com/gPxrRLgefo

— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 3, 2020

Despite that, it was difficult to convince Messi to play for the Catalan club again. He missed the PCR machine test that resulted in his absence in the training session of Barcelona’s new coach Ronald Koeman.

To resolve the transfer saga, Messi’s father and agent, Jorge Messi arrived in Barcelona to hold a meeting with Bartomeu to discuss the future of Messi.

Earlier, Jorge said to the reporters he didn’t know anything about his son’s future in the Spanish club. But he also added it was difficult for his son to continue at Nou Camp.

Meanwhile, it seems his meeting with Bartomeu had been fruitful later. Hence, he hinted that Leo Messi is agreeing to remain in Barcelona one more year.

Why Barcelona don’t want to release Lionel Messi

Josep Maria Bartomeu was under immense pressure to convince Messi’s representatives to stay since he is the man behind this chaos.

Lionel Messi is inevitably the best ever to play in the history of FC Barcelona.

During his 16 years career in the club, he achieved innumerable records and titles that have given him a respective place in the football record book. 

However, the last couple of years of his Barcelona days have been topsy-turvy, especially in the Champions League stage. Plenty of awful transfer deals and lack of quality in the squad have made Leo Messi feel disgusted with the club.

In the consequences, Lionel Messi was planning to move away from the club. But it is evident that Barcelona is unwilling to release their main man anything under his huge €700million release clause. A superstar like Messi’s departure will bring in the downfall of the club for sure. 

Bartomeu is fully aware of the consequences of Messi’s departure from the club. That’s why he had been trying his best to keep Messi at the club despite his unwillingness to continue at Nou Camp any more.