Lionel Messi Is Now Unsure If He Can Leave Barcelona And Could Stay At Club, Claims Report

Lionel Messi is now unsure of whether or not he can leave FC Barcelona and isn’t ruling anything out, a report claims.

According to SER, this means that a dramatic U-turn could occur in this afternoon’s meeting between the player’s agent and father Jorge, plus the club’s under-fire president Josep Bartomeu.

For over a week, Messi had been cocksure in his stance by first sending a burofax to the Camp Nou stating a desire to end a 20-year relationship with the club.

He voiced an intention to utilize a clause in his contract that previously allowed him to terminate at the end of each campaign, after Barça finished 2019-2020 trophyless and humiliated by Bayern Munich via a 8-2 quarterfinal drubbing in the Champions League.

The Catalans claimed such a luxury had ceased to exist on June 10, though Messi’s lawyers countered this by highlighting the manner in which the term had been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and insisted this approach was still valid well into August.

Messi then went ahead conducting himself as a free agent in failing to report for coronavirus testing and the senior team’s first training session under Ronald Koeman, before La Liga came out and supported FCB via a statement that confirmed both his contract and mammoth €700mn clause were still intact.

Between these developments, Messi’s camp had attempted to sit down with Bartomeu and Co to negotiate an “amicable exit” to Manchester City, but were told that Barça were not interested in meeting face-to-face unless it was to discuss a contract extension for their captain.

Reports have since emerged that the Mancunians cannot afford to sign Messi on anything other than a free, while Inter Milan have also dropped out of the race, yet both parties will be pleased that Jorge and Bartomeu will touch bases and try and work a way out of the dilemma.

Despite facing increased calls to resign, the outgoing president is convinced he can talk Messi and his family round, and get the number 10 to sign for a further two years taking him past his 35th birthday.