At 33, after 16 years and 634 goals in Barcelona's first team, Lionel Messi faces the possibility of leaving the Camp Nou. In his last contract, signed in 2017, the Rosario saved the possibility of leaving Barça at the end of each season. He never used it. His last silence (he had time to demonstrate until May 31), prolonged their bond until June 2021. Today, after the tremendous blow from Lisbon, empty of a team with which he can aspire to conquer Europe, the Argentine forward is present four alternatives. And, at Barça, fingers crossed.
Messi has long told Barcelona that he wants to be part of a winning project. Unlike what happens with the Argentine team - he agreed to accompany a new generation without great aspirations - the Rosario player at Barça wants to win. And, to win titles, essentially the Champions League, he understands that he has to be surrounded by a competitive team. It is not what happens. Not what you think will happen. Then, the first option that is presented to the Rosario is to go to the club offices and agree to the termination of his contract one season before it expires. According to sources close to the board, Bartomeu does not want to go down in history as the president who lost Messi, but if it were the footballer who showed his desire to leave, he would not see it with bad eyes. And Messi intuits how the president thinks.
With Barcelona's accounts in intensive care, the club would save the Argentine's salary, close to 50 million euros net. In the sports area, however, they do not consider this alternative. They understand that if the 10 wants to leave in this window, they must refer to their termination clause. "If you want to leave, bring a club that pays the 700 million", emphasizes, to those around him, the sports director, Eric Abidal. The current context in the soccer industry does not invite to think that there is a club with the economic capacity to face the clause of the Argentine striker.
The third alternative that Messi has is waiting. His contract with the club expires in June next year, and from January the Rosario can start negotiating with any club. An option that he was able to hold on to last season. However, despite the fact that the campaign was twisted for Barcelona and, especially for the 10th since Valverde was fired - "from January to here everything has gone wrong," he complained - Messi decided not to negotiate his departure.
Finally, the captain can renew. Negotiations had begun in June to extend the link for two more seasons (1 + 1). But Messi, tired of being used by the board as the culprit of the decisions and without a competitive team, asked his father and representative to paralyze them. Messi can sign his ninth link with Bartomeu or wait for the elections to pass and do so with the new president. And thus complete his dream: finish his career at Barcelona.