July 1, 2021 became, without exaggeration, a historic day for football. Argentinean Lionel Messi was granted free agent status after spending 18 years with Barcelona. His last contract has come to an end, and a new agreement with the Catalans has not yet been announced. Now fans are waiting to see how the career of one of the best footballers in history will develop further.

Last year, a high-profile conflict broke out between Messi and Barcelona, ​​because of which the striker almost left the club.

The forward was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the team and its results.

He spoke directly about the desire to leave, while continuing to swear his love for the Catalan grandee.

After Josep Bartomeu stepped down as president of Barcelona and was replaced by Joan Laporta, relations between Messi and the club have improved.

They began to negotiate a new contract, but they didn’t work.

According to Laporta, Messi will return to Barcelona shortly after a short formal absence.

The stumbling block in their negotiations was the financial fair play, which the parties must respect.

“We want Leo to stay and he wants to stay.

Everything is on the right track.

We try to find a solution that suits us all.

It's all about fair play now.

I want to say that he stays, but so far I can’t, because we are still working on some things ”, - quotes the words of Laporta Marca.

The newspaper claims that the club's financial problems did not allow to resolve the issue with the contract until June 30.

At the same time, Barcelona is confident that the parties will definitely reach an agreement, despite the fact that its debt is about € 1 billion. The publication Sport.es clarifies that due to the fall in income during the pandemic, Catalans are forced to cut their salary fund by almost € 200 million per year to meet the financial fair play conditions in Spain.

Messi is the highest paid player in Barcelona, ​​but now in order to re-sign him, the club must either sharply cut his salary, or part with other expensive players, which will inevitably affect the team's already not very successful performances. According to Spanish media reports, Messi was offered to stay for two years in Catalonia and receive € 60 million at the same time, after which he will spend two more seasons in the American Inter Miami with the same salary, and then return to Barcelona as ambassador and will receive the rest of the payments due.

However, this option with deferred salary is categorically not satisfactory to the Example management. At the same time, the president of the league, Javier Tebas, demanded that Laporta not miss the six-time winner of the Ballon d'Or and sign a contract with him. It is assumed that on July 2 they will meet to discuss the problem that has arisen, and then the question of continuing Messi's career at Barcelona will become clear.

The difficulty in re-signing Messi also lies in the fact that he himself is absent from Spain and cannot personally participate in the negotiations. He is located in Brazil, at the location of the Argentina national team in the America's Cup. The tournament recently concluded the group stage, following which Messi became the top scorer with three goals, and his national team advanced to the quarterfinals from first place. The striker has long dreamed of winning an international trophy for his country and should now focus on playing for the national team, which may need him until July 10.

Until the parties shake hands, the football world is trying to wake up to the fact that one of the best footballers on the planet is virtually unemployed and can pursue a career anywhere. Some clubs have tried to take advantage of this opportunity and made it clear that they really want to see Messi at home. For example, the Newells Old Boys who raised him posted several messages on Twitter, in which he hinted that it would be great for them to reunite again. Dutch "Volendam" has already prepared a contract in which "excellent fish and the most beautiful orange uniform" are spelled out as bonuses, and American "Real Salt Lake" from the Major League of Football did not hesitate to post a photo of Messi in their shirt.

However, some were skeptical about the fact that such a fuss arose around Messi's new status.

Russian "Alania" said that instead of the released Argentinean would prefer to sign Alan Dzagoev, who also ended his contract with CSKA.

And the captain of the Finnish national team Tim Sparv, who recently played at Euro 2020, recalled that he was also looking for a new club and at the same time it was much cheaper than Messi.

Messi, we've changed our minds.

Alan, write to direct.

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- FC Alania (@fc_alania) July 1, 2021