A Spanish football expert Semra Hunter who has been following Manchester City’s interest in FC Barcelona’s football icon, Lionel Messi, says the Premier League club is no longer interested in the Argentina international.
She revealed that a source close to the potential transfer deal has told her that Manchester City will no longer bid for the 6 times Ballon d’Or winner due to the financial implications of doing so.
In analyzing why the club has decided to halt the bidding process, Semra Hunter told Sky Sports that Manchester City stepped down from the deal because Lionel Messi is getting closer to the twilight of his football career as he is currently 33-year-old. At this age, the Argentine football legend will not be able to do most of the things he has done in his 17 years reign at FC Barcelona.
Messi’s current contract with FC Barcelona will expire in June 2021 and if Manchester City wait until then before they sign him, he would have turned 34-year-old. At that age, no matter how magical he has been throughout his career, it might be almost impossible to play as well as he has played two to three seasons ago especially in the Premier League where clubs play fast-paced and close-marking kind of football.
Besides this, another thing Manchester City considered before they turned their backs on the proposed deal, according to the football expert, was the financial burden the club would have to shoulder if they should allow the deal to scale through. For instance, Messi currently earns about €100 million-per-year at FC Barcelona and he might not be willing to accept a pay cut that will be too far from that fee.
Even if Argentina international wants to accept a pay cut, the pay cut might not be far from €50 million-per-year which will still be a big burden on any football club across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic that has greatly affected the revenue of clubs since February until date.
The notion of the football expert who claimed that Manchester City are no longer going for Lionel Messi might not be far from the truth because Pep Guardiola, the former manager of Barcelona and current coach of Manchester City, said recently that he wants Messi to remain at Barcelona.
Though the coach claimed that he was saying that because he is a fan of Barcelona, that could be a sign that it has been concluded within the corridors of power at City that Messi should be a no go area.
But looking from the financial aspect of the deal, the Saudi-Arabian investors behind the finances of Manchester City might not mind splashing any amount on Messi if the deal will guarantee them a Champions League title which they have been craving for. As it stands, since Manchester City are yet to officially say they are no longer going for Messi, only time will tell what will happen between Messi and FC Barcelona before June 2021.
FT: 1-0
— Semra Hunter (@SemraHunter) November 21, 2020
Simeone gets his FIRST win v FCB in #LaLiga in 18 games! And with the most Simeone scoreline at that. A fine job from them, furthering their position as title contenders. FCB poor. Piqué + S. Roberto off injured bad news for quickly depleting Barça squad.#AtletiBarça
