Lionel Messi “already has a new team” and will join Inter instead of Manchester City, according to the agent who instigated his move to Barcelona as a youngster.
The 33-year-old is reported to have had a clause in his contract that would allow him to unilaterally terminate their agreement following the 2019-20 season in order to join another club.
We knew things were bad at the Camp Nou between the Barcelona players and the board. We knew that Lionel Messi was upset but still we were shocked when the news came out that Messi had activated a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave on a free transfer this summer.
Although his contract is set to expire at the end of the 2020-21 season, Messi and his legal team believe the clause will allow him to terminate his deal unilaterally.
Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel has declared Lionel Messi is “very welcome” to join the club should the Barcelona star decide to pursue a move away from Camp Nou.
The Argentine legend has once again been linked with a possible Barca exit after seeing his side end the season without a trophy and lose 8-2 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Tuchel himself failed to guide his side past Bayern on Sunday as the Bundesliga giants claimed their sixth Champions League title with a 1-0 win over PSG.
That is not a typo. Some members of the Barcelona board are actually in favor of selling the clubs best ever players, and one of the top five players ever to have played this game.
New Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has publicly said he wants to build the team around Messi, but ESPN is reporting that some directors say that they would be prepared to listen to offers that would allow Koeman to rebuild the team at the same time as reducing the wage bill.
Does Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu really want to be remembered as the president who sold Lionel Messi?
Barcelona have hired their former player Ronald Koeman to replace Quique Setien, after the Spaniard was sacked for overseeing a poor end to the 2019/20 season.
Koeman has left his role as Netherlands head coach and has signed on a two-year deal, although the second year of that will come after the club’s next round of elections and, as such, there may be a new administration who’ll want to bring in their own coach.
For 2020/21, though, Koeman will be the man in charge as he seeks to steer Barcelona back to winning ways.
It was a disastrous end to the season for Barcelona. They threw away the La Liga title and were embarrassed in the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
The collapse cost manager Quique Setien and technical director Eric Abidal their jobs. Attention has now shifted to the Barcelona board whose incompetent board spending of €250 milllion on Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho to replace Neymar, played a big role in the mess that Barcelona finds itself in today.
But club president Josep Bartomeu does not accept blame for the demise of the club that Cruyff and Pep built. Instead, Bartomeu places the blame at the feet of Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.
Barcelona have sacked manager Quique Setien in the wake of their humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The club fired Setien following a hastily-convened emergency meeting on Monday morning after suffering one of the darkest defeats of their 120-year history to cap a trophyless season.
Former Barcelona player and current Holland manager Ronald Koeman is poised to become the club’s new manager.
A statement on Barcelona’s official website read:
‘This is the first decision within a wider restructuring of the first team which will be agreed between the current technical secretary and the new coach, who will be announced in the coming days.’
Valencia have alerted clubs across Europe that they have put of their players up for sale in a bid to balance the books as a result of COVID-19.
Winger Ferran Torres became the most high-profile player to leave the club when the 20-year-old moved to Manchester City for £37 million last week, and other stars are now expected to follow suit.
The La Liga side have confirmed that former Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin has moved to Villarreal in a deal that is expected to also see their rivals snap up Spain international Dani Parejo for a combined total of under £11.5million.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticized the decision to overturn Manchester City’s two-season ban from European football.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed on Monday that the Premier League club had been cleared of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions” and would be allowed to enter into European competitions as normal.
Back in February, the club had received a two-year ban from playing in the Champions League or Europa League following a lengthy investigation from UEFA.
“We have to reassess whether the CAS is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football,” Tebas said on Monday, as quoted by BBC Sport’s Simon Stone.
Barcelona have no intention of activating the €111 million (£100m) release clause in Lautaro Martinez’s contract at Inter because they don’t have the money, but the Liga giants are still keen to thrash out a deal for the Argentine.
Those at San Siro have made any suitors of their South American forward aware that one window of opportunity will swing shut at the close of play on Tuesday.
For them, that is when the current release terms in Lautaro’s contract will expire.
Barcelona consider that clause to be valid for another week, through to July 15, but have no plans to take it up regardless.