Barcelona Reportedly Close To Signing Their New Lionel Messi

Barcelona F.C. are reportedly close to signing their new Lionel Messi.

Messi has been the face of Barca ever since a soccer fan can remember. He has made countless milestones for the club making him the greatest influence of the organization. But just like any other athletes, “Leo” will soon have to say goodbye. Apparently, Barcelona are fully aware of that and are already prepping things up for the future.

The club is reportedly close to acquiring Juan Sebastian Sforza, captain of the U17 national team representing in the FIFA World Cup. Sforza is being viewed as Barcelona’s future Messi because he is believed to be built the same way as the Argentine superstar.

Aside from the fact that Messi and Sforza are both from Argentina, they are also both developed by same club – “Newell’s Old Boys.” Sforza was discovered in that respect by one of Messi’s idols, former River Plate and Valencia legend Pablo Aimar.

According to Mundo Deportivo’s Angel Perez, Barcelona are currently “awaiting the last details” to “close the signing” of Sforza. The young Argentine’s transfer could be announced at the conclusion of the Viareggio Cup scheduled to take place in Italy from the 16th to 30th of this month, Forbes reported.

Sforza moved to a small town of Coronel Dominguez 30 minutes south of the city before starting to play at Santa Teresita as an eight-year-old. Passing through Union de Alvarez and Sarmiento, he eventually rose to prominence at Newell’s where he turned 18 last month.

In his young career, Sforza has already scored one goal and is regarded as a technically gifted and powerful central or defensive midfielder currently priced at $2.8 million by Transfermkt.

If Sforza could prove that he is really the heir apparent to the Barca captain, the club could repeat the move that changed modern soccer. Roughly 20 years ago, former Barcelona player Carles Rexach was already a Barcelona executive when he met 13-year old Messi during a trial with the club.

Messi arrived at Barca in September 2000 and blew people away with what he could do with the ball. Dazzled by the young Messi’s unique abilities, Rexach saw a bright future ahead and decided that he wouldn’t want to let Messi slip away. At the time, other club executives skeptical about Messi's height, urging his father to take him to Real Madrid instead.

However, Rexach stopped Messi’s father and decided to take matters into his own hands. He opted to write out a contract for Messi “on a napkin” signed by all three other members of the Barcelona management present at the time.

"Once in Barcelona, I decided to sign him on a paper napkin that a waiter gave me because I couldn't let him (Messi) get away,” Rexach revealed.