Barcelona drops Lionel Messi bombshell after suggestive photo with Neymar

Hours after a suggestive photo between Lionel Messi and Brazilian star Neymar, Barcelona has confirmed some shocking news.

Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona. Picture: Pau Barrena/AFP

Football superstar Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona.

Messi, 34, has represented Barcelona since he was 13 years old, scoring 672 goals at the senior level in 778 appearances. With him, the team has won La Liga 10 times, the Copa del Rey seven times and the Champions League four times.

He is a six-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, awarded to the best player in the world.

Messi’s contract expired at the end of June, making him a free agent. He was expected to sign a new contract at Barcelona, but on Thursday the club announced it could not afford to re-sign him due to “economic and structural issues”.

“Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles,” Barcelona said, pointing to Spanish Liga regulations.

Messi has been at Barcelona since he was 13. Picture: Cristina Quicler/AFP

“As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled.

“FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the best for the future in his personal and professional life.”

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The Spanish league requires its clubs to comply with a spending limit, and the coronavirus pandemic has tightened that limit considerably, with Barcelona’s spending already cut by more than a third.

The club has been trying to reduce its wage bill.

Nevertheless, Barcelona President Joan Laporta had been maintaining that he was “confident” that Messi would end up staying.

Last month Spanish media reported the two sides had reached a broad agreement regarding the terms of a new contract, including a 50 per cent reduction in his salary.

But a photo of Messi with Brazilian star Neymar and several of his teammates from French club PSG sent the rumour mill running wild before Barcelona confirmed the split.

Hmmmmm 👀 pic.twitter.com/yerThm7UHG

— Gary Lineker 💙 (@GaryLineker) August 5, 2021

Messi’s sudden availability on the transfer market will send massive ripples through world football, with other clubs likely to put their previous plans on hold.

The long goodbye

When Messi won an unprecedented sixth Ballon d’Or in December last year, the speculation had already begun over his career at Barcelona after he sought to trigger an exit clause and leave as a free agent.

An April consolation prize of a Spanish Cup success -- his 35th club trophy -- was scant reward.

The 34-year-old Argentine footballing genius has countless times over 17 years with the Catalan club been able to propel the side to glory.

But the club has been imploding off the pitch amid a soaring debt mountain. Now there are fears for the future on the pitch after the club said Thursday that agreement on a new deal could not be reached “due to economic and structural obstacles” under Spanish League rules, scotching plans for him to remain with his only club for another five years, until 2026, when he would be 39.

The 34-year-old signed his first contract with Barcelona in 2000 on a napkin when he was just 13 but his contract expired on June 30, meaning he could look once again further afield.

Messi in 2005. Picture: Luis Bagu/Getty Images

In truth, he has been eyeing different horizons for at least two years, however. Barcelona, despite lifting the La Liga title, collapsed at the end of the 2018-19 season, losing a 3-0 semi-final lead, including two Messi goals, to Liverpool in the Champions League.

They then lost the domestic cup final to Valencia.

Bayern embarrassment

If that was bad, worse was to follow in a barren 2020, capped by a shocking Champions League quarter-final humiliation, 8-2 to Bayern Munich in Lisbon.

That abject showing meant a first trophyless season since 2007 and also marked the first time Barca had conceded eight goals in a game since losing to Sevilla 8-0 in the 1946 Spanish Cup.

More significantly, the loss convinced the twinkle-toed talisman his final footballing years lay elsewhere.

The fallout was immediate. Coach Quique Setien was sacked after barely six months in charge and former Camp Nou fan favourite Ronald Koeman came in -- only for Messi to inform the club he wanted “unilaterally” to terminate his contract by triggering a release clause.

Now once again, he is headed for the exit door even if few clubs are likely to have the financial firepower to pay his wages although he is at least available on a free transfer.

Messi after being hammered by Bayern. Picture: Manu Fernandez / Pool / AFP

The suitors with the deepest pockets are Manchester City, led by Messi’s former Barcelona mentor Pep Guardiola -- or Paris Saint Germain, where he would link up once again with former teammate Neymar.

City were agonisingly close to European glory last season -- as were PSG the year before -- and the addition of Messi could give Guardiola or Mauricio Pochettino the X-factor as both pursue the one trophy missing from the cabinet.

The growing turmoil enveloping Barcelona has been reflected in Messi’s diminishing statistics.

Though he managed 31 goals in all games during the virus-interrupted campaign just ended, it was his lowest return since 2007-08.

Although he hit 30 last year to top the charts to take his club record to 474 it was well off his peak year of 50 league strikes in 2012.

That season he set a European all-time record season tally of 73, breaking Gerd Mueller’s 67 goals scored in the 1972-73 German season.

Irreplaceable

Barcelona have insisted in the past they had plans for coping with Messi’s retirement, whenever it came, but the truth is their number 10 is irreplaceable -- on the field as well as off.

According to Catalan financial firm Diagonal Inversiones Messi is worth more than his salary -- by a distance.

The father of three -- married to childhood sweetheart Antonella -- may have earned some 385 million euros in the past four years at Barca.

But a study by the firm indicates he generated income of 619 million euros in that time for a 235.6 million profit. He is also reportedly responsible for 30 percent of club income and eight in ten shirt sales.

Messi has become a football icon. Picture: Pau Barrena / AFP

Take that out of the equation and Barca will be losing more than just a man who led them to 10 La Liga crowns, four UEFA Champions Leagues, three Club World Cups and six Spanish Cups and who has scored the most goals and most hat-tricks in La Liga while netting more than 700 senior goals for club and country.

For Messi, one more golden hurrah is the hope.

For Barca, who style themselves “more than a club” if this is indeed adios to a superstar who is ‘more than a player’ his departure will leave a massive hole to fill on the pitch as their number ten seeks pastures new -- and a gargantuan one for their accountants to plug.

- with AFP