Barcelona: Lionel Messi to join Manchester City in summer 2021

One ofManchester City directors,Omar Berada,hasconfirmed that the Premier League sidewill attempt to lure La Liga starLionel Messi from Barcelona in 2021. The Citizens failed in a courageous attempt to sign the Argentine this summer after he had reiterated hisdesire to leave Camp Nou earlier.

Since Messi’s contract with Barca expires in the summer of 2021, he will be allowed to negotiate with other soccer clubs in January. Thus,City believethey have the financial power to facilitatethis transfer during thenext summer transfer window.

“He’s the best player in the world, he’s the best player of his generation. I think any club in the world would like to explore the possibility of him joining their team. The fact that it was commented that he wanted to come to play forCity just shows you how far the team has come over the last years where the best talent of his generation and potentially saying he wants to come and play for us,”Berada toldManchester Evening News.

“It’s hard to guess what could happen. If you think back to those two weeks where everything played out at Barcelona, it’s almost impossible to guess what will happen next summer. Messi is a generational talent, he’s the best player in the world and probably an exception to potential investments that we’d do out of the ordinary but our planning has been done with this current squad and it is being considered with the current opportunities that we have.

“For every single position we have to be prepared because there can be so many things that can happen but at the same time, I think we have the financial strength and system ability to make that investment when required. That’s what puts us in a position where we feel comfortable that we’ll be able to take the right decision because it also doesn’t mean that we’ll have to rush into anything, and when we do decide to bring in potentially someone else, whether it is next season or the one after that then we will be in a financial position to do it for the right price.”

Messi’s summertransfer saga

Messimade the headlines inSpain, as well as in the entireworld in earlySeptember, when he wanted to leave Barcelona. The six-time Ballon d’Or winnermissed out on his club’s COVID-19 testing day and then he refused to show up at the pre-season training sessions.

At that point, the Blaugrana fans started organizing protests in-favor of their favoritesoccerplayer, asking the club not to sell him. In addition, they were demanding for the club presidentJosep Maria Bartomeu to resign, having supposedly been the guilty party for the saga.

He was strongly linked to moving to Manchester City, who were probably the lone suitor who could pay his release clause.However, eventually, the forward announced that he wouldstay at Barcelona until June 2021.