messi is going to leave Barcelona

Submit transfer request...Barcelona "pay 1 trillion won"
Lionel Messi waved to fans ahead of a friendly match between Barcelona and Arsenal at Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, in August last year.
Lionel Messi waved to fans ahead of a friendly match between Barcelona and Arsenal at Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, in August last year.

Lionel Messi (33, Argentina) has submitted a request for a transfer, saying he will leave FC Barcelona, a Spanish professional football club he has been with for 20 years, the Associated Press reported.

According to reports, the team confirmed that Messi had submitted a request for transfer on the 25th (local time), and Messi expressed his desire to leave the team immediately through his lawyer. Since joining Barcelona as a youth player in 2000, Messi has been the team's flagship player and the world's top player, leading the Spanish league's 10 wins and four Champions League titles, and has won six Ballon d'Or awards given to football MVPs around the world every year.

With Messi's transfer, Barcelona, currently facing its worst crisis, faced bigger problems. Barcelona ended the season without a win for the first time since the 2007-2008 season, and recently lost 8-2 to Bayern Munich of Germany in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. The club appointed new manager Ronald Kuman, but Messi said in a recent meeting with the new manager that "I don't see my future in Barcelona." He also criticized the team's decision to cut players' salaries this year due to the team's weak performance and the Corona scandal.

Messi's transfer attempt is expected to lead to a legal battle. Barcelona's contract period with Messi is until June next year, so the Byout (minimum transfer fee) clause will be applied when moving to another club. The club that wants to recruit Messi has to pay 700 million euros (about 983 billion won) to Barcelona. Messi, however, insists that the clause will not be applied if La Liga announces its intention to transfer the team at the end of the season.