Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi will not join Premier League side Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.
Neymar, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets have all signed new deals since the start of the season and Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Marc Andre Ter Stegen are set to follow the same.
However,Barcelona president, Josep Bartomeu is confident that he can keep hold of Lionel Messi by tying him up with a new lucrative offer.
Like Andres Iniesta, Barcelona are ready to offer Lionel Messi a contract for life – meaning he can decide when he wants to call it a day.
And after Real Madrid hit-man Cristiano Ronaldo signed a new bumper £45m long-term deal, it is believed that Messi would not sell himself cheap.
Foottheball sources claim that Messi’s father is set to hold a meeting with the Barcelona bosses to agree a contract extension that would see Messi pocketing £55m a year – the biggest ever contract in the footballing history.
Ronaldo and Bale have signed new six-year deals at Real Madrid but Messi is believed to be eyring a four-year-deal.
And now it is believed that Barcelona would have to offer him a huge pay rise every two years in order to tie him down.
Manchester City and Chelsea are now the favourites to sign the 5 time Ballon d’Or winner as rumours claimed that both the Premier League clubs are keen on landing him with big money moves.
However, it is now believed that Messi would use Manchester City to make sure that Barcelona would offer him a mammoth pay rise in order to tie him down.
Earlier, Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has rejected a new bumper deal with the Spanish giants.
Spanish daily Marca had claimed that the Argentine superstar had rejected a contract extension at Barcelona in July due to his on-going tax fraud case.
Argentina’s legendary footballer Lionel Messi had been sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud. A court in Barcelona found him guilty of three counts of tax fraud. The court had also sentenced the Argentine soccer player’s father, Jorge, to 21 months in prison for the same three crimes.
Leo was also sentenced to pay a fine of 2.1 million euros (around 2.4 million US dollars) while his father was fined 1.6 million for using companies outside of Spain to avoid paying 4.16 million euros earned from the players image rights between 2007-2009. The footballer had alleged in his defense that his father managed his financial affairs and that he had merely signed the papers.
But neither Messi nor his dad did serve actual time in prison for the offense.
The Argentine’s current contract is only valid until the next 18 months.
Spanish daily Marca claimed that Messi had rejected a contract expansion in the second week of July, when he was snapped on vacation with his family.
