Responding to rumours about Lionel Messi’s potential transfer, FC Barcelona firmly believes their captain is not up for sale, a Mundo Deportivo report has it, suggesting that the Catalan side sees Messi as “untransferable” and that the team is unlikely to let the top forward go.
This is due to Messi's eye-watering €700 million release clause, which appears to be a fee that will need to be matched for the 33-year-old player to leave the squad.
If Messi decides to leave the club, the report claims, Barcelona will remind him of the release clause with him, as the player still has one year left on his contract.
A real crisis has meanwhile swept through the Camp Nou since Barcelona’s shock 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich last Friday in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Shortly afterwards, on Sunday evening, Brazilian journalist Marcelo Bechler reported, as cited by Forbes, that Messi wished to leave immediately and not wait for his contract to expire.
The Catalan team has since introduced a number of changes to its management, with Quique Setien being replaced as chief coach by Ronald Koeman, and Eric Abidal being sacked from his high-profile position as the club's sporting director.
The next day after being appointed as new boss, Koeman met with Messi, and, as per RAC1 broadcaster, the Ballon d’Or winner, who first joined FC Barcelona at the age of 13, confirmed that he largely sees his future “more out of the club” than in.
Among the clubs purportedly interested in the potential transfer is Inter Milan.