Manchester City has denied the speculation that the Premier League club spoke with FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi when the Argentine star wanted to leave Spain in August 2020.
A spokesperson of the club stressed that there was no contact between Manchester City and Lionel Messi during and after the contract dispute between Messi’s representatives and FC Barcelona.
The unnamed spokesperson who spoke with Sky Sports said Manchester City are not planning to sign the 33-year-old record 6 time Ballon d’Or winner despite the strong speculation linking Messi with the club.
Recall that in August 2020, Messi wrote to FC Barcelona to inform them of his intention to leave the club for the first time in his professional football career. However, nothing of such could happen because Messi wanted to leave for free while Barcelona insisted that any club interested in him must pay his release clause worth about €700 million.
Besides the fact that the release clause was outrageous, the coronavirus pandemic which affected the revenue of clubs across Europe made it impossible for any club to make any official attempt to sign him.
During the back and forth between Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona, there were speculations that Messi had spoken with Pep Guardiola, his former manager at Barcelona who is currently the manager of Manchester City.
Afterward, the reports that Manchester City was in talks with Messi’s representatives and that the Premier League club has drawn up a contract for Messi became the order of the day.
When all was said and done, Lionel Messi ended up remaining at FC Barcelona and has continued to remain the club’s talisman despite the contract tussle between him and the club.
So far this season, the Argentine football star has scored 15 goals in Spanish La Liga and has provided 5 assists in 20 league matches. He has made a total of 29 appearances in all competitions scoring 20 goals and providing 8 assists.
But his outstanding performance has not changed the fact that Messi is yet to agree on a contract extension with Barcelona. His current contract with the Spanish giants will expire in June 2020, which is about four months from the time of publishing this report.
Yet, the Spanish giants have not been able to continue negotiating with Messi because of the political instability at the club. Once a new president is elected at the club, the next point of action will be to convince the Argentine football icon to remain with Barcelona.
While the world is waiting for Barcelona to fix things administratively, Messi has the right to start negotiating with other clubs outside Spain.
So far, Lionel Messi is linked with a move to Paris Saint Germain and there are still lingering reports that he might reunite with coach Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. As it stands, it is only with time that the world will know whether Messi is leaving Barcelona or will remain at the club until he retires from football.
Lionel Messi – The King of Throughballs 👑 pic.twitter.com/uznaZyN9Ip
— MessiTeam (@Lionel10Team) February 18, 2021
