Manchester City believe they have a chance of signing Lionel Messi after the forward told Barcelona he wants to leave.
Pep Guardiola was Messi’s manager at Barcelona for four hugely successful seasons from 2008-12 and would love to be reunited with the 33-year-old. He had never anticipated Messi leaving the Camp Nou but City, whose chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain also worked at Barcelona, will try to secure a deal.
It is understood City are banking on being able to get Messi on a free or for a relatively minimal fee, and a legal battle may determine that. Messi’s camp believes a clause in his contract means he can walk away for nothing. Barcelona, by contrast, insist that he is still bound by a €700m (£629m) buy-out clause.
A clause in Messi’s contract allows him to leave for no fee provided he communicates that decision, which he did by burofax – in effect a recorded letter – on Tuesday afternoon.
Barcelona believe the deadline for that clause to be applied has expired, arguing he had to inform them before the end of May. But given the exceptional nature of this season, which extended into the summer and did not formally end until the Champions League final last Sunday, Messi’s camp are set to argue the deadline should be set on 31 August.
The club replied by burofax to Messi to tell him they want him to stay. If Barcelona accept that he can leave but not on a free, they will realistically be forced to drop their demand for €700m and negotiate a price.
On Tuesday night several hundred Barcelona fans gathered outside the Camp Nou chanting for Messi to stay and for the resignation of club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, who has not intention at the moment of resigning.
City will not be alone in trying to lure Messi, whose salary is understood to be about £500,000 a week and who has one year left on his contract. Paris St-Germain are expected to be among other interested clubs.