Lionel Messi Demanded FC Barcelona To Sign These 2 Players Apart From Neymar: Report

Lionel Messi reportedly has demanded FC Barcelona to sign two more players apart from their already targeted players, Neymar and Lautaro Martinez.

The current Barca side is aging as most of the starting players are in their 30s, making the team vulnerable to injuries. In fact, four players are already out of action due to injuries.

Barca skipper Messi, earlier, accepted that the current Barcelona side is not good enough to win the UEFA Champions League, the trophy that they won last in 2015. For the team to once again become the most dominant side in Europe, the captain wants the club to meet his demands ahead of the 2020-21 season.

According to news reports from Don Balon, Messi has asked Barca to sign two more players who are from Ajax and Napoli. Messi wants the board to sign his countryman Nicolas Tagliafico from the Netherlands, who could be an ideal alternative for Jordi Alba.

While Alba has suffered to maintain his fitness this season, his poor behavior has also forced current coach Quique Setien to not include him in his pecking order. In this case, Messi believes Nicolas Taglafico could fill in the gap and form a strong defence partnership with Gerard Pique at the back.

The other player who Messi wants in Barca is Napoli’s midfielder Fabian Ruiz. The Spanish soccer player could fit in well in the squad since he had made his first-team debut under Setien at Real Betis back in 2014.

The two signings reportedly could cost Barcelona a little less than $163 million, although club president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his team could reduce it to at least $119 million for the two players combined.

Messi’s contract is set to expire at the end of 2020-21 season and the talks of his new contract have been underway for a while now. It was earlier known that Messi reportedly has been offered a mind-boggling offer of $1,045K-a-week on renewing his contract at Barca.