Lionel Messi today allowed a deadline to pass in his contract that would have allowed him to terminate the deal unilaterally and leave Barcelona on a free, Marca today report.
The Argentine is so valued by the Catalan club, and has so much power in negotiations, that he was able to insert such a clause. However now that we’re into June, he’s tied to them for another year.
Of course, he would in theory be able to speak to foreign teams from January under the FIFA rules, but the Blaugrana will be hoping to secure him long term before that.
At times this year, perhaps for the first time, Messi’s future looked a little in doubt. Comments about senior figures at the club behind the scenes, sacked managers and bad results all added up to briefly put the fear into Barcelona.
But as expected, the 32 year old has decided to stay put for another year at a minimum.
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“The motives [behind Project Restart] are possibly 100% financially driven rather than integrity driven.” – whose false dichotomy was this? Find out here.
