Barcelona President Talks Lionel Messi Transfer

Lionel Messi will never be sold by Barcelona, according to the club’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The Barcelona president made his remarks in response to the recent spate of rumors that have emerged linking Lionel Messi to the Premier League in the summer.

According to The Express, Bartomeu was insistent that the Argentinian forward will not be leaving the club in the next few months.

“Messi will continue here this season, next season and the one after that. He has a contract and is happy, so I’ll refer you to his words. We have no intention of selling Leo because we are very happy with him.”

It would allegedly cost around $450 million to both prize Lionel Messi away from Barcelona and pay for his contract. Messi’s transfer fee would be around $300 million, while he would expect a huge contract of around $600,000 a week, too, for at least six seasons.

Lionel Messi has been linked to the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea over the last few weeks. And Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who works as Bayern Munich’s chairman, has also come out and declared that the likelihood any side will sign Messi is remote.

Rummenige stated that Messi and the La Liga club “should not be separate from each other.” It had previously been reported that Messi might look to move to Germany to reunite with Pep Guardiola, who managed the forward during his stint with Barcelona.

However, during his discussion with Kicker, via ESPN, Rummenigge added that Munich will probably never make a bid for Messi.

“Messi and Barcelona are like a marriage for a lifetime. They should not be separated from each other, just like Bayern and Lahm. I know those in charge at Barcelona pretty well, they will never sell him. He has a 250 million-euro release clause. Messi has to stay at Barcelona.”

Lionel Messi has made numerous comments over the last few months that have suggested all is not well at Barcelona, the club where he has spent over half of his life.

Just this month, he stated that he wasn’t sure where he would be playing year. This came after he was asked whether he would ever play for his home side, Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys.

“Well, I’m not sure what’s going to happen — if one day I’ll go back to Newell’s [Old Boys]. I’m not sure where I’ll be next year. I’ve always said that I’d like to finish my career at Barcelona, play at Newell’s, but as Cristiano just said, nobody knows what the future holds — and much less so in the case of the football world, where everything can change overnight.”

Rumors of a dispute between himself and Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique, appeared in the press recently, too. However, over the last few games, Lionel Messi has been in scintillating form for Barcelona, especially over the weekend where he helped to inspire the Catalan side to a 6-0 away victory over Elche.

[Image via Nexo Rosario]