Lionel Messi has asked Barcelona to exercise a clause to let him leave the club this transfer. The star striker from Argentina made an announcement of his final decision about his future at the club earlier today.
The club confirmed to ESPN Deportes’ Jordi Blanco on Tuesday that they were notified by Messi of his decision via burofax, a service used in Spain to urgently dispatch a document that requires proof to third parties.
Messi has now decided he wants to spend the final years of his career away from Barca, who he first joined almost 20 years ago as a teenager.
Following Barca’s 8-2 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final last week, the Liga club has been plunged into crisis.
Head coach Quique Setien and technical manager Eric Abidal have already departed, with Bartomeu confirming on Tuesday that Ronald Koeman will be named the club’s next head coach.
Messi, 33, has a contract until 2021 but has grown disappointed with events on and off the pitch at Camp Nou in recent months. Reports from Argentina claim Messi believes a clause in the contract should oblige Barcelona to let him leave for free. However, as reported by ESPN earlier this year, the club maintain that clause expired at the start of the summer.
The debated clause was included in the last contract signed by Messi, in 2017, and stipulated he could leave for nothing at the end of each season as long as he communicated his decision to Barca before June.
A source at Barcelona has told ESPN they firmly believe that Messi’s window to leave for free this year has passed, but other reports say Messi’s legal team are arguing the extension of the season altered the expiry date of the clause
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