Lionel Messi will, on paper at least, not be a Barcelona player from midnight on June 30, as the Argentine has not yet reached an agreement with the club over a new contract.
Ever since Joan Laporta returned as Barcelona president in March, it has been his No.1 goal to get Messi to put pen to paper on a new deal, but the Catalan club’s all-time record goalscorer has not done so just yet.
Messi wanted to leave last summer
It is worth remembering that Messi was ready to leave Barcelona last summer, with the 34-year-old handing in a transfer request to then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu via a burofax, yet the Blaugrana were not willing to let him go and instead pointed any interested clubs to his 700 million euro release clause.
Laporta was aware that he needed to try and fix the situation, so throughout his election campaign he made clear that Messi had confidence in him because he had stayed true to his word with the Argentine during his first spell in office.
However, four months have now passed since Laporta became Barcelona president and there is no agreement between the club and Messi‘s camp.
Laporta has a very good relationship with Messi and his father, who he speaks to frequently, but when it has come to reaching an agreement there are still a few issues that are unresolved.
These slight differences could be addressed in the next couple of days, or it could take a bit longer, but Laporta is clear that he wants an agreement to be reached imminently in order to avoid seeing Messi become a free agent, even if it just for a matter of days.
There is another important reason why Laporta is keen to ensure that Messi does not take long to agree a new deal at the Camp Nou: sponsorship contracts.
There are several companies that invest a lot of money into Barcelona due to the fact that Messi, one of the world’s most recognisable athletes, is there.
Without him at the club, the amount of money that Barcelona could bring in would be significantly affected. Given the club’s financial woes, this would be a severe blow.
It is possible that Laporta will try to go all out in order to reach an agreement with Messi‘s camp before midnight tonight (June 30), but sources close to the negotiations note that not all of the remaining issues can be resolved in a few hours, unless one of the parties gives in on all their demands.
In the meantime, Messi is representing Argentina at the Copa America in Brazil.L
