Leo Messi's father and footballing representative, Jorge Messi, is due to arrive in Barcelona this week to negotiate his son's departure from the Barça club, according to sports journalists such as Guillem Balagué and Veronica Brunati. The exact day of Messi senior's arrival is unknown, but the Argentinian is tipped to meet with FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu towards the end of the week: on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Lionel and Jorge Messi / GTRES
The Barça president's proposal is to renew Messi's contract for two years, including the current "June 10th" clause allowing the player to leave on a free transfer, providing he announces his move before that date. Bartomeu wants to avoid being the president who let the best player in the history of the club - some would say, in the history of the world - depart.
But the situation is complex at can Barça, as the club refuses to let Messi walk away for free and is insisting that any club to which he moves pays Barcelona the 700 million euro buy-out clause. The contractual argument is being waged fiercely at media level: radio network Cadena Ser asserts that payment of the Argentinian's buy-out figure would not be required, as his contract treats the 2020-21 season as an optional extra and does not specifically apply the clause for a hypothetical exit from now onwards. Meanwhile, the Spanish Football League has sided with the club, saying that if Messi does not pay the 700 million, the body will not carry out the necessary paperwork so that the player can break his obligations to the country's federative body.
Thus the question marks remain, with a courtroom battle possible if Messi and Barça can't reach agreement. The Argentinian, whose preference seems to be becoming part of Pep Guardiola's project again, this time at Manchester City, failed to show up at the Barça training grounds at the Joan Gamper Sports City on Sunday to take a coronavirus test along with the rest of the team.