Josep Maria Bartomeu down plays Lionel Messi exit

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu announced that Lionel Messi’s contract renewal has already been signed by the Argentine footballer and denied speculation on the player’s exit.

Bartomeu said that the only missing is the official photograph and the protocol signature. However, former presidential club candidate Agusti Benedito who earlier launched a no-confidence vote against the current Spanish coach suggesting that Messi could potentially leave for free in the next summer due to the board’s continuous ‘staggeringly bad job.’

Thus, even if Messi signed, the 30-year-old’s buyout clause will be just €300 million, which apparently does not seem to be prohibitive after Paris Saint-Germain paid €222m to trigger Neymar’s release clause at Camp Nou recently.

The sale of Neymar brought in discontent toward Bartomeu. But prior that, the 54-year-old’s mismanagement relating to tax evasion case to the signing of Neymar from Santos was already worth of immediate resignation.

Benedito earlier stated in the news, “Bartomeu should resign, he is out of control. We are facing a really important institutional crisis and must act.”

But the unfazed Barca chief said, “It doesn’t matter if the clause is €500m, €600m, €1,000m or €1,500m, we can put any clause that we want because if a player wants to leave, we will have to sit down and speak about how we will do it. That’s what we lacked with Neymar. If we’d done it that way, it would have been better for everyone.”

Photo Credit: DailyStar