Author: Robert Abong’o
AfricaPress-Kenya: For any Barcelona fan, none would have thought the year 2020 would be the one their greatest player EVER would leave the club.
For almost two decades of sensational football at the highest level, Barcelona’s Number 10 Lionel Messi is looking to leave the Camp Nou.
English media throughout the week has been buzzing, following news the World’s Greatest Player was being linked with a move to England.
That’s not all. What made tabloids across Europe go crazy was the strong rumour ‘Lio’ planned to link up, once again with his former boss Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Guardiola, once a Barca player managed the club between 2008 and 2012. In between this period, he won 14 titles:
3- La Liga
2- Champions League
2- Copa Del Rey
3 – Spanish Super Cup
2- European Super Cup
2- FIFA Club World Cup
It is under Guardiola’s tutelage that Messi quickly transformed into the monster of a footballer we recognise today. In his first constant season under Pep (2008-2009), he bagged 38 goals, 23 in the league alone.
The Pep-Messi combination was remarkable; they became the first-ever Spanish top-flight club to achieve a treble, after humbling Manchester United at the 2009 Champions League final on 27 May, Rome, where the little magician scored an ‘impossible-header’ to seal the game. He was also the tournament’s top-scorer with NINE goals.
Messi won his first Ballon d’Or at the age of 22 and went on to win three in a row (2010, 2011, and 2012).
He won another in 2015 and one more in 2019 to make it record-breaking six Ballon d’Ors for one player.
Messi fails to turn up at Barcelona PCR testing ahead of pre-season training
On Sunday, August 30 outlets in Spain reported Messi did not attend the PCR testing at FC Barcelona. Messi is reported to be pushing for a move away from Camp Nou.
However, a club would have to trigger his buyout (release) clause, should they want to price him away from Barcelona.
Messi’s release clause is reported being around 700 million Euros (Sh90 billion). This was following a contract he signed in 2017, that would expire in 2021.
His legal team is said to be pushing for a clause that allows him to terminate his contract individually, which would allow him to leave FREE before the end of the Spanish transfer window.
