Messi informs Barcelona of his desire to terminate his contract from "one party"
A source inside Barcelona, the runner-up of the Spanish Football League, confirmed to AFP on Tuesday evening that its star and captain Lionel Messi, 33, told the Catalan club by fax that he wanted to terminate his contract "unilaterally."
The source explained that the player's lawyers had sent a fax announcing that Messi wanted to unilaterally end his contract, according to the clause allowing him to do so, which expired on June 10, but the club considers that his contract is valid until June 30, 2021.
"In principle, this clause expired on June 10, but the unusual nature of this season due to the Corona virus has paved the way for Messi to request the termination of his contract as of now," explained the newspaper, "Marca", the best-selling newspaper in Spain, on Tuesday evening. He opened negotiations for his departure, on the basis of the termination clause of 700 million euros.
According to the Spanish sports press, Messi met the new Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman last week and told him that he sees himself "more outside Barcelona than inside" the club.
Spanish radio "Onsi" confirmed this evening, "The end of the glorious era of Leo Messi in Barcelona appears close. After the arrival of (coach) Ronald Koeman, what appears to be the departure of his (Uruguayan) friend Luis Suarez and a difficult and turbulent end to the season, Leo Messi told Barcelona, Tuesday, By faxing his intention to leave the club. "
This "total bomb", as described by the main Argentine sports newspaper "Ole", comes 11 days after Barcelona's historic defeat by Bayern Munich 2-8 in the Champions League quarter-finals at the end of a disastrous season that led to a real revolution within the Catalan club.
All these factors led to the sacking of coach Quique Setien and his replacement by Ronald Koeman. And the last, according to the specialized Catalan press, informed the Uruguayan striker and close friend of Messi, Luis Suarez, that he is not counting on his services in the next season, like other pillars of Barcelona, such as Chilean Arturo Vidal, Croatian Ivan Rakitic and French Samuel Umtiti.