Spanish media reports revealed that the Argentine star in
the Spanish team Barcelona, Lionel Messi, is still thinking of
leaving the Catalan club, even after meeting his new coach,
while all four sports newspapers touched on their front pages
about the mysterious future of the Argentine striker.
Spain’s best-selling newspaper, Marca, reported that Messi,
33, told the new Barcelona coach, Ronald Koeman, that the
probability of his departure was stronger than the possibility
of continuing with the club.
On the other hand, “Ass” newspaper said on its front page that
“Lionel Messi thinks he will go,” according to Reuters.
As for the Barcelona newspaper, Mundo Deportivo, it said,
“Messi does not see his future clearly,” but indicated that
Messi’s chance to leave soon is slim, given the big penalty
clause in his contract, which amounts to $ 827 million.
And Messi joined Barcelona when he was 13 years old and
scored 634 goals for the team in 730 games, which is the
historic scorer for the Catalan club and he is still the most
crowned player with 33 titles.
37 matches separate him from Xavi Hernandez’s number,
the most played match with the club so far.
But Messi is in the last year of his contract with Barcelona,
while many doubts arose about his future after Barcelona’s
resounding 8-2 defeat in the Champions League by Bayern
Munich last week, knowing that Barcelona had not won
the Champions League since 2015.
For its part, “Sport” newspaper, which is also published from
Barcelona, reported the “first summit meeting” between
the captain and the new coach, saying that Messi cut short
his vacation in order to meet Koman.
It is noteworthy that during his presentation last Wednesday,
Koeman said that he wanted Messi to continue in the team,
but he did not praise the player as much as his predecessors did.
The Dutch coach said he “does not know if he will need to
persuade Messi to stay”, although he described the player as
the best in the world and confirmed that he would be happy
if the Argentine star decided to stay in Barcelona.
