It’s time to address the elephant in the room, Lionel Messi’s Barcelona contract comes to an end at midnight later today. That’s right!
This is not a drill, FC Barcelona haven’t tied Lionel Messi’s contract extension as it comes to an end later today. Midnight is the time when the Argentine star will officially become a free agent but people at the club are still confident. All they want is for Messi and his family to feel comfortable with the new contract they are writing. In previous years, there have been moments when Leo hasn’t felt protected by his club with all the taxes he’s had to pay. The main reason his father hasn’t agreed to anything is because he wants to make sure he protects his son.
Initially, FC Barcelona wanted to tie Messi to a 10-year contract that paid him what he played in two season during all that time. But the player didn’t agree to this and the negotiations were suddenly halted. Yesterday was Joan Laporta’s birthday and his work task force failed to meet that deadline. Now that only a few hours remain, there is very little they can do to prevent the inevitable. Leo Messi will be a free agent at the stroke of midnight and there’s nothing the club can really do about it.
The glass half full for Barcelona and Messi.
Not having a contract at FC Barcelona means Messi won’t be able to appear in any publicity that the club currently has of him wearing any new season kits. It also means that the Argentina Football Association would have to pay any medical treatment if he gets injured during the Copa America. However, the club doesn’t look worried about this and they are looking at this new opportunity with positivity. They consider not all clubs in the world will have the ability to say they signed Leo Messi as a free agent.
We all know that he wants to stay at the club but he can’t simply sign a contract with blind trust. When this happened in previous seasons, Leo was eventually betrayed by the board. We aren’t saying Laporta could betray him but he simply needs to be careful with everything he does from this moment forward. The plan is to make the announcement as soon as possible but the club needs to offload some other players before this happens. Barcelona needs to respect La Liga’s salary cap and Messi is a major part of it.
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