Manchester City To Bid $125 Million For Lionel Messi

Every soccer club could benefit from having Lionel Messi on their team. But while that’s a pipe dream for 99.9 percent of soccer clubs, Manchester City are one of the very, very few that might be able to convince the Argentinian to join them. And it turns out that the Premier League side are actually considering a bid for the player, too.

The Mirror were the ones that started the speculation, reporting that because Lionel Messi’s future at Barcelona is allegedly uncertain Manchester City wants to test their resolve with a bid of £100 million ($125 million). They have one thing in their favor, too, because Lionel Messi broke through the Barcelona side under Pep Guardiola, who just so happens to be the current Manchester City manager.

According to the publication, both Pep Guardiola and the bosses at Manchester City have made Lionel Messi their number one target this summer, and the club is actually confident that they can get the player, too, because they think that he’s ready to quit Barcelona.

Manchester City’s confidence about purchasing Lionel Messi was boosted because his father Jorge Messi, who works as Lionel’s adviser, is believed to be traveling all the way to Barcelona to deal with some business. However, according to the Mirror’s insiders, Jorge doesn’t have any plans to talk with Barcelona about a new deal for Lionel Messi. Which should be rather alarming for Barcelona fans because Lionel Messi’s current contract only has 16 months left on it.

Manchester City believes that if this is still the case come the summer then Barcelona could actually be convinced to sell Messi, especially if he’s still not signed a new contract. There’s a chance that Barcelona might struggle to offer Lionel Messi a similar contract to Manchester City, as they recently gave new deals to both Neymar and Luis Suarez that increased their wages substantially.

La Liga has salary restrictions in place that Barcelona must stay within. Barcelona isn’t allowed to spend over 70 percent of their income on wages for their players, while Lionel Messi is already on £20 million ($25 million) a year after tax. Barcelona won’t be able to offer the forward too much more, while Manchester City will be looking to go above and beyond to try and seduce Lionel Messi over to the Etihad.

There’s another reason why Manchester City are suddenly a little more optimistic about signing Lionel Messi. The Citizens think that Lionel Messi’s standing at Barcelona will have been made a little less sturdy after they lost 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday. City believes that this result might have convinced Messi to seek a new challenge, which they believe they can offer him.

There have long been rumors that Lionel Messi and the current Barcelona manager Luis Enrique don’t see eye-to-eye. However, Barcelona’s 4-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain has led to speculation that Enrique will leave the position in the summer, which will only be increased if they’re eventually knocked out of the competition by the French team.

Reports in Spain have also suggested that the 29-year-old Messi believes that his best chance at adding to his four Champions League medals will come away from Barcelona, who have an aging squad that needs to be adjusted.

The same reports have also insisted that Messi wants to team up with Pep Guardiola again, and while there are rumors that Barcelona is keen on Pep returning to the Nou Camp as manager, some speculation has also suggested that Messi could just as easily be convinced to go the other way, too. Especially since City is adamant that Guardiola will honor his current contract, which expires in 2019.

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