After winning the Copa America with Argentina, Lionel Messi will stay in FC Barcelona. According to the Spanish media, both parties have reached an agreement on a five-year contract, with a reduction of 50 percent of the Argentine’s salary.
On July 1st, Messi became officially a free agent since his four-year contract had come to an end. Although many rumors came to light whether the Argentine star would continue or not his career at FC Barcelona, journalist Fabrizio Romero, who is specialized in transfer news, stated via his Twitter account that “it’s never been in doubt”, Messi’s staying.
Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona, it’s never been in doubt and gonna be announced soon. 🔵🔴 #FCB
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 14, 2021
PSG never had any real chance this summer. NO talks. Only Barça for Leo. ❌
New contract will be until June 2026 instead of 2023 to help the club – as @ferrancorreas reported.
Messi’s main concern when choosing his future at Barça was that the club needed to have a good project. Leo wants to compete in the Champions League and with his club he was not able to do so during the last couple of years. That was one of the reasons why Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City were seen as possible destinations for the Argentine.
Even in September of 2020, Messi affirmed he wanted to leave FC Barcelona, after his friend Luis Suarez was kicked out in confusing fashion. At that time, Leo could hardly stand FC Barcelona’s president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his relationship with coach Ronald Koeman was not the best too.
Today, things are quite different. Joan Laporta is the club’s president and Messi’s relationship with Koeman seems to have improved. In addition, there have been spectacular signings like Memphis Depay and Leo’s friend Sergio Agüero, which give hope to the club ambitions.
What remains the same are FC Barcelona’s economic struggles. That is why three of the four club signings came as free agents, and that is also why Messi would have accepted to cut his salary by half.
Copa America players and their current transfer status:
1. Emiliano Martinez – none
2. Franco Armani – none
3. Agustin Marchesin – none
4. Juan Musso – Atalanta (DONE)
5. Nahuel Molina – Inter, Hertha Berlin
6. Gonzalo Montiel – none
7. Cristian Romero – MU, Hotspur, Barcelona
8. Nicolas Otamendi – none
9. German Pezzella – none
10. Lisandro Martinez – Barcelona
11. LM Quarta – none
12. Nicolas Tagliafico – PSG, Chelsea, Mu, City, Barca, Arsenal, Atletico
13. Marcos Acuna – none
14. Leandro Paredes – none
15. Giovani Lo Celso – Barcelona
16. Rodrigo De Paul – Atletico (DONE)
17. Guido Rodriguez – Arsenal
18. Exequiel Palacios – none
19. Papu Gomez – none
20. Nicolas Dominguez – none
21. Lionel Messi – Barcelona (DONE)
22. Angel Di Maria – none
23. Sergio Aguero – Barcelona (DONE)
24. Lautaro Martinez – Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico, City, Chelsea
25. Nicolas Gonzales – Fiorentina (DONE)
26. Joaquin Correa – Hotspur, Westham, PSG, Arsenal
27. Angel Correa – none
28. Julian Alvarez – Aston Villa, West Ham, Milan
Some of them are strong rumors. Some of them are mild ones but at least they are linked to those clubs.
May Cristian Romero end up in Barca.
Both plays different position. Buendia is also world class bt yet to play for a big club. Lisandro Martinez proved how good he is in ucl he was immense against both Liverpool and Atlanta in ucl.
We need some changes in our midfield also. Im still not convinced about locelso. He plays good in first 30-40 minutes thn fades out plus he is too much direct our midfield needs more control. Our midfield is too direct so that makes our defence more vulnerable. Maximum times its end to end stuff. I don’t like parades also. He makes us defensively unstable plus doesn’t provide the control which im talking about. Without proper control we will always be susceptible to counter attacks. I like to see buendia in our midfield as we can’t rely on a player like locelso who cant hold his stamina more than 35-40 minutes in a match. Just like Arthur who was good bt lacked stamina which destroyed his career. Guido is good defensively bt doesn’t offer anything offensively i want a defensive midfielder like busquets or pirlo bt sadly we r not producing enough talent in this department
So Funny. I think you should improve your football knowledge. Lo celso is best Argentine midfielder even apart from final he perform better than de paul.
You are man who predict 90% brazil win!
He has football knowledge?
Better than Depaul? That is bonkers. I like Locelso, but lets not get carried away. Depaul is our most important player second to Messi.
Lo Celso is best Argentine midfielder. LoCelso and DePaul we have one of the world’s best midfield duo.
What’s point in him so much talent if he could not sustain even 50 minutes?? 🤔 our midfield is not that strong we have weaknesses a great midfield should have possession 65-70% in every match our current midfield cant keep possession for long duration. Depaul is great bt according to me other 2 can be rotated easily. If we want to be world champions our midfield should be world best and right now our midfield not among top 3 sides in the world.
I think I understand your point Anuparno. If you consider GLC’s most recent performance in this tournament, it was not up to his own standard . I think he has some fitness issues. And , it affected our midfield which felt non existent some times. But I think a fully fit GLC and RDP are good enough for our midfield.
Fabrizio Romano tweeted that Griezmann-Saul swap almost complete. Really good news for Aguero. Saul is a good addition for Barca, a hard worker defensive minded player. So I don’t think any room for Lo Celso.
Barca upfront looks pretty solid: Messi, Depay, Aguero, Fati, Dembele, Coutinho.
It is pretty average according to me. Aguero is always injured and messi cant play false 9 anymore we still don’t have a proper no. 9 fati, depay noone is proper no. 9
Depay there…only because of Koeman. They should have signed Haland or Lautaro…but no cash.
Depay is a decent player. I think he will be a success in barca
great move in all respects, because it frees up more room for De Paul and Aguero at the same time
Emiliano Buendai going to be Kevin de Bryune of Argentina, I will fear a player like Emiliano Buendai if he plays in opposition team. Thing with Emiliano Buendai is that strikers need to be always aware of his passes to score so Argentina need striker who can finish. Buendai’s work rate is very high so it will not be a problem to gel him up in team. Argentina midfield is Rocking💪💪
We will see how he performs performing in 2nd division and performing in top tier is not the same thing. If he has a stellar season he can replace locelso or some wingers in wc.
You are in doubt again man, for a player like Emi Buendai no one should doubt quite funny you see Lisandro Martinez as world class but in reality Emi Buendai is world class. 😀😀😀
How many times people will tell this. He was in top5 in most of the stat last season (19-20) when he played in the Premier league at the age of 23. Many club wanted him but he preferred to stay at Norwich in second division.
Dude, Norwich sucked in the premier league but his personal numbers were great. He’s at Villa now and surrounded by better players. He will excel there especially if Grealish stays on.
Lazio have signed Luka Romero.
Thiago Almada is not going to Marseille as Pablo Longoria brands him as “expensive.”
And the latest, Barcelona are now seriously considering to scoop up Giovanni lo celso who fits the barca style perfectly. If this happens it will be a pure delight for us but I dunno how much true it is.
I don’t hear anything about lisandro Martinez anymore.
Lo Celso isn’t required considering they have De Jong.
He’ll be a bench player at Barcelona, which shouldn’t happen.
He’s a potentially a regular First Team player.
Won’t mind if he joins any Italian Team.
Lisandro Martinez should be used in Fullback position rather than CB because of his height, some are execusing it for Puyol but Puyol has leadership qualities,he was a leader in back always organising defence I do not see it in Lisandro.Lisandro is good player far better than Quarta Martinez but I think Otamendi and Pezella are still better than Lisandro.What Otamendi did in Copa I do not think Lisandro could have done it.
But both Acuna & Tagliafico are well settled in their LB position
how is pezzella good? he was very bad throughout the copa. ota has been very good I agree to that but time has come when we settle romero anf licha as a our cb
Peezzella out Senesi or Palomino in
I am not the biggest fan of Pezzella but throughout the Copa he performed above expectation I should say. His game against Colombia was below average, but other than that he was pretty good. He had that last ditch tackle ala Mascherano against Brazil and he did whatever he was asked to do as a defender.
I think Scaloni (not me) sees him a the main back up of Otamendi and Romero. What is not secured tho, is the 4th defender, that is where Senesi or others can get in.
I get this video today. In my village in Bangladesh little boys were also done Argentina victory procession after the final win. Yes this is the same group of boys who celebrate picnic party. In near future i wanna share Argentina related story so please subscribe.
https://youtu.be/arVRRUibfRg
Is everyone in your village Argentina fans? Is that the same for most of Bangladesh or just certain areas?
In my village as well as whole Bangladesh 50% Argentine,40% brazil and 10% others football nation fan( approximately).
Yesterday 2006 World cup captain pablo sorin post a article about Bangladeshi fan and he dedicated this copa to Bangladeshi Argentine fan
If i hurt someone, I’m sorry( comment about lisandro martinez).i think he is good player but he should first proved him in top 5 League
Seeing River bench depth today , its selfish on their part to not release Julian Alvarez or lobby for Angileri/ Girotti for Olympics. In past they have lobbied so easily for senior NT spots ( Matias Suarez , Casco, Armani , Montiel , LMQ , even Alvarez for Copa 21 ) . They could easily pushed 2-3 players in Olympics squad. Apart from National pride , Olympics gives a global stage to leverage the Europe top league summer transfer window which is open till August 31st.
Inspite of such a strong squad they could just draw vs Argentinos Juniors & Gabriel Milito deserves credit today . Braian Romero & Paradela did well . Girotti had a solid chance in the end.
Paradela himself would serve the Olympics team well. He is a good player even though he is yet to establish himself at River.
Paradela and Alvarez from River. Medina and Varela from Boca. Federico Navarro of Talleres, Chancalay of Racing, Union’s Canete and Zenon. Rosario Central’s Luciano Fereyra and Luca Dupuy (before Mexico call him), Gabriel Florentin of Argentinos have all been playing consistently and playing well at that. 2 or 3 from the above list would add quality to the Olympics Squad, when you have Colombatto, a sub at low table Mexican Club, Urzi, who’s level has dropped and was playing for Banfield Reserves most of last season, Mosevich, who plays in Portuguese second division selected. Also all those Velez mediocre players other than Almada are poor additions. Velez players almost always never show up when moving to Europe or representing the NT. It’s a jinx. That’s why I have low hopes for Almada.
Well, Batista has more focus on the team chemistry than reinforcement or talent-induction it seems. He’s right in that aspect as the core of these players were together from U20 WC last edition through recent pre-olympic friendlies, winning PAG Gold and First place at South American Pre-Olympics. Almada and Payero are great additions to that base. Let’s hope he makes the best of this warm-up period before the debut against the Aussies. Barco and Almada starting together and exchanging positions from across centre-left portions to free up Gaich or Valenzuela / De La Vega could prove to be a path-breaking thought, I hope…
i like Batista’s focus on team chemistry… but jus feel our fullbacks are very ordinary & we are maybe missing an overage striker who would give some tranquility. i really dont see Ponce coming in & scoring goals if Gaich is having a bad game.
Actually I’m not sure the bench is as deep as it seems. At least right now. Casco had quite a poor first half defensively and quite toothless in the attack. I think Angilieri will be getting more opportunities. Enzo perez seemed to be fading after the hour as well. And while the names on the bench have promise – fernandez, paradela, not sure they are at this very moment capable of picking up enzo perez’s full workload during a libertadores.
Also Alvarez is more crucial in the river system than Girotti is to be honest in my view. they are built around dynamic wide wingers with a 9 who can drift around and girotti is more of an old fashioned fixed point striker right now. So I can agree sending girotti to the olympics would have made more sense as it would probably take longer than a month to work him into their base style to the point where you could say he is essential. But it is difficult to see them sending alvarez off. I mean they had to rely on carrascal to stretch the play after suarez went off. Thats not really a good look for bench depth.
Considering it was Argentina Juniors as opponent , i would have wished to see River showing commitment to Olympics cause. Both River & Boca staying out leaves a bad message that these clubs only are bothered about their success & AFA has zero control .
I’m confused, how is it that Funes Mori is playing for Mexico now when he already played for ARG’s senior team!?
That is his brother that plays for Mexico, not the defender Funes Mori.
yeah I just figured that right after I said he scored and he’s wearing #11 and the other is a defender
and he just scored…………speaking of the devil??!!!!
In current context this is best for Messi. No great expectation from Barca this season . He can focus on World Cup & help Barca rebuild . Also the bonus of some good sync in final third with Aguero.
I know he’s gonna stay when they signed Kun plus Argentina ended up winning Copa . This means he feels less preasure to “must win” another CL to proof his greatness by moving to stronger club.
Messi already has all money in the world , fame, and all major silverware, so moving to another club doesnt really add anything to his life & legacy.
Barcelona is Messi’s second home, he spent more life time in Barca than Rosario. Family settled and happy living in Barcelona. Beside, Barcelona is a perfect place to raise your family, as Paris will be too glamourous and City is so quiet for them And Laporta is a lucky guy, as Messi is in happy mood, to cut his salary by 50% will be okay for him. A wise word says “Never made promise when you are happy and never reply when you are angry”.
His main motivation now is for Qatar 2022 and Champion League trophy not financial salary but for the legacy
Congrats and wish Messi all the best @Barcelona. CL we are coming
He doesn’t need the money, He’s won it all with Barcelona. Would be strange to see him in another kit TBH. Barca’s looking ok. He’ll play with his buddy Kun, He’ll win the Pichichi a few more times…He is focused on the World Cup…Especially now that he has his copa and the pressure is off…He has a decent shot too…Argentina has some very solid players on their team that know how to win and grind results out. If he’s ever desperate for some extra cash he can just go to the MLS when he is over 40 and make a trillion dollars lol
Glad he decided to stay and with the addition of Memphis and Kun, what is there not to like!
Besides, Pep can go screw himself and PSG is a team that doesn’t need his service and vice versa.
We ARGENTINA fans got what we wanted for NOW, A COPA win, he’s happy, were happy and all the supporters are happy as well and let all the haters jump off a bridge for all we care.
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