[Sport]Messi asks Barcelona for a pact that facilitates his departure

[SougarLord]

The movements are beginning to be desperate and the Bartomeu government feels increasingly stronger in the pulse.

Leo Messi, aware of the difficulties so that his initial strategy to dissociate himself from Barcelona can be successful (the exit clause that he wielded in the burofax that inaugurated the conflict ceased to be effective on June 10), now intends to agree. From the initial requirement it has passed to diplomacy. His advisers, according to sources close to the player, have already requested a hearing from the Barça entity with the intention of agreeing on an exit. That is, to establish a transfer price that allows him to conclude his stage at Barcelona. A step that they are waiting for at Manchester City, the destination desired by the Rosario, so that the English club can assess the viability of the operation.

 

From the Barça board, meanwhile, they maintain that their position continues to be the same. The government of Josep Maria Bartomeu refers to the year of the contract that remains for the Argentine, until June 30, 2021, and his termination clause, which amounts to 700 million euros. There is no intention for now to lower that price.

 

THE CALM OF BARTOMEU

 

Bartomeu, who according to his relatives has not lost his cool at any time despite the social pressure to which he is being subjected, does not want to go down in history as the president who allowed the escape of the best footballer in the history of the club. We will only speak to tell you that he still has one year of contract to fulfill. And that Ronald Koeman is counting on him to lead the new project. We are not willing to grant a reduction in its clause, nor do we want to negotiate a sale with other clubs maintained by the Barça board.

Not only that. At the top of Barcelona they show full confidence that Messi cannot get away with it and has to stay at the club. For this they remember the episode that occurred with Neymar last season, when PSG cut off any negotiation attempt despite the Brazilian's efforts to land at the Camp Nou. For now, firmness is the only strategy with which the president works. Beyond that last Thursday he launched an ordeal to the Argentine pantocrator assuring that he would be willing to resign - only he, not the board that has to present the economic closure before the delegates - if that were the condition that Messi put to stay. Something that from Bartomeu's own circle they consider unlikely given their determination to end his term.

 

A BUROFAX WITH NO MORE ARGUMENT THAN THE PANDEMIC

 

                  

 

That Messi has requested an immediate meeting with Barcelona responds to the legal fragility of the arguments used in the burofax sent to the Barça club by his Barcelona law firm last Tuesday. As this newspaper has learned, said document was the most concise. It simply offered a technical justification that had to be supported by the circumstances arising from the pandemic. It did not contain any other argument to prove the use of the exit clause that allowed him to terminate his relationship with the entity as long as he had claimed it before June 10. In addition, this date is specifically included in his contract, they say from Barcelona.

 

Messi is summoned next Sunday at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper to undergo the PCR tests. Monday August 31 is the day marked for the start of training for the new project led by Koeman. Sources from the Barça directive, after consulting their legal services, consider that if Messi starts the preseason with the first team, he will be giving legal compliance to the year of the contract that remains to be fulfilled. The initial intention of the footballer was not to go to any of these appointments, although his advisers are still studying the way to proceed given the consequences that this could entail.