Messi Is Staying, But Attention Now Turns To Next Key Date Captain Can Engineer FC Barcelona Exit

He’s staying. But he’s not happy about it.

On Friday evening at 18.00 in Barcelona, Lionel Messi had a dramatic interview published with Goal.com whereby he explained the reasons for having engineered a failed attempt to unilaterally cancel his contract with the Catalan capital’s biggest club.

Scolding president Josep Bartomeu for going back on his word, and not allowing him to utilize parts of their agreement that gave him the freedom to leave should he wish, Messi endeared himself to Culers yet again by claiming that he could have taken legal action yet couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing to the outfit that has reared him since the age of 13.

“There was another way and it was to go to trial,” Messi explained. “[But] I would never go to court against Barça because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived. It is the club of my life, I have made my life here.

“Barça gave me everything and I gave it everything. I know that it never crossed my mind to take Barça to court,” he insisted.

Be that as it may, this still doesn’t mean that Messi won’t walk for free next summer, as he had intended this month.

The chances of sticking around at the Camp Nou will be increased when Bartomeu steps aside, and especially if Victor Font succeeds him then installs Xavi as head coach, but attention now turns to a new date on the calendar – with regards to a potential exit – that is not all that far away.

Barça playing their first La Liga game on September 27 against Villarreal, there are just three months’ worth of fixtures for new head coach Ronald Koeman and his men to win the Ballon d’Or holder round before January 1.

From this point onwards, Messi will be able to negotiate with whomever he wants. And if the sporting project in Catalonia is still unconvincing, he can then finally turn his back on the Blaugrana on July 1, 2021: the day after his current deal expires.

Potential suitors such as Manchester City and PSG will be attentive to all developments pertaining to Messi, and given that the Argentine will celebrate his 34th birthday next summer, could possibly land him by offering to pay a sum lower than his current €100mn per year salary at Barça.