La Liga: Barcelona begin training for new season without Lionel Messi
Football | September 01, 2020 10:12 ISTLionel Messi remained absent as Barcelona began training for the new season under Ronald Koeman.
Lionel Messi remained absent as Barcelona began training for the new season under Ronald Koeman.
Lionel Messi, who last week told Barcelona he wants to leave, skipped the team’s first day of training on Monday.
The Messi transfer saga took another step forward last week with the news that he would not go to the club's training ground to take a planned coronavirus test.
Barcelona said Messi was the only player who did not undergo the tests at the club’s training center. The team is set to resume training on Monday ahead of the upcoming start of the season.
Under the four-year contract signed in 2017, Messi can leave the club for free if he requests it by June 10. Messi invoked this clause, but Barca said it had already expired.
Spanish media say Messi has contacted the club to try to resolve the situation, but Barcelona confirmed on Saturday that it will not negotiate to allow Messi to depart before his contract ends next year.
The club has told Messi that president Josep Bartomeu will resign if that is what it takes to keep the playmaker, but Barcelona said on Friday there was no word yet from Messi on the offer.
Earlier this week, Messi told the club and his teammates about his intention to leave Barcelona this summer despite having a contract until 2021.
With Lionel Messi likely to leave Barcelona, La Liga is now forced to deal with another star departing.
Lionel Messi's decision to leave Barcelona has sparked unlikely dreams in residents of Rosario, that he would return to play for his boyhood club, Newell's Old Boys.
Barcelona were basing their revamp on Messi, hoping he would help the team rebuild with new players and a new coach. But the type of changes the team began implementing may have actually turned him away.
As the speculation over his next club begins to take shape and Barcelona attempting to every bit in their hands to stop the legend, we bring you some of the extraordinary numbers from Messi's glorious career at Camp Nou.
Messi is trying to force a move after 20 years with Barcelona, which wants to hold him to a contract that runs through June 2021.
A day after the Argentine great told the club he wants to leave, Barcelona said its restructuring project still revolves around the player.
The big announcement came 11 days after Barcelona's humiliating 2-8 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals in Lisbon, on of the club's worst defeats in Messi's career.
Messi on Tuesday informed the club and his teammates on his intention to leave this summer, despite having a contract until 2021.
The announcement comes 11 days after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals, one of the worst defeats in the player’s career and in the club’s history.
PSG coach Thomas Tuchel addressed Messi to PSG transfer rumours after a heartbreak 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final on Sunday.
Neymar has been in astonishing form this season as he displayed his enormous skills in UCL against Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta and RB Leipzig.
Messi hasn’t made any public statement since Barcelona's 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals last week, putting in doubt his permanence with the struggling Catalan club.
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