Messi Heading To Man City? Barcelona Chief May Say This When He Meets Player’s Father Wednesday

KEY POINTS

Messi's father, Jorge, is set to meet Bartomeu on Wednesday
Jorge is also the star player's agent
Messi and Barca have been in conflict over the player's contract

Lionel Messi’s father reportedly is set to meet the president of FC Barcelona Wednesday for final showdown talks about his son’s Nou Camp future.

Messi’s father – Jorge Messi – is also his agent and is expected to fly down to Barcelona to convince the club to release his son for free at the ongoing summer transfer window.

Barcelona skipper has informed the club he wants to leave this summer despite having a year left in his current contract. While he believes that he can trigger the clause in his deal that would allow him to leave for free this summer, Barcelona have said the clause expired in June and if Messi wanted to leave ahead of the 2020-21 season, his new club would have to pay his hefty release clause of $826 million.

Messi and his legal team argue that the star striker has unilaterally rescinded his contract and as a result, he skipped Barcelona’s preseason training that began on Monday. The 33-year-old Argentinian recently also missed the COVID-19 that the rest of the first-team underwent at Barcelona’s training ground.

Notable sports website ESPN has claimed Jorge Messi will ask Barcelona to allow his son to leave for free by releasing his player registration, while club chief Josep Bartomeu will offer a two-year contract extension to keep Messi at the club until 2023.

The same report has also stated Barcelona more or less know that Messi will not accept the contract extension given his urge to leave the club, which he had joined almost two decades ago. Manchester City are favorites to sign Messi and it was earlier reported that the Premier League side has already offered the player a five-year deal, which includes two years of Major League Soccer (MLS) with their sister club New York FC.

Lionel Messi has informed Barcelona that he wants to "unilaterally" terminate his contract with the Spanish giants, a club source confirms to AFP. AFPTV / AFPTV teams

Man City, as of now, are waiting to get clarity whether they will be able to sign Messi for free, or will have to pay his massive release clause. It is believed Pep Guardiola-managed Man City are analyzing different options of pulling this huge deal off this summer. It was previously reported that Man City could offer Barcelona three players plus $118 million for Messi.