Lionel Messi (1987-), Argentine footballer
The soccer career of Messi is like a sea of stars, stirring the sea of emotions of countless Barcelona fans. However, with the soccer superstar's free-agency status, Barcelona encountered heavy obstacles on the journey for its registration, making Messi's situation become extremely delicate. According to ESPN's latest report, Barcelona in the breakthrough salary cap limit, can not complete the registration for Messi's new contract, if Messi chose to renew his contract with the team, he may have to wait until January next year in order to complete the registration procedure.
On June 30, Messi's contract with Barcelona expired, and as a free agent he began his vacation after winning the Copa America. However, compared to the leisurely vacation, Messi is feeling a tinge of apprehension about his future career at Barcelona, as ESPN revealed that Messi may have to wait until January next year to complete his registration at Barcelona, as the team needs to do so before meeting the La Liga salary cap. The Catalan side are urgently dealing with redundancies and pay cuts, with the likes of Griezmann, Coutinho, Neto, Pjanic and Umtiti in limbo, but it's a slow process as the drums of the new season are quietly beating.
The deadline for La Liga is the end of August, two weeks after the start of the new season. Barcelona naturally want to complete the registration of new players such as Messi before the start of the new season, and if their plan fails, i.e., if they fail to complete Messi's registration by August 31, then Messi may not wait until next January. Messi is willing to stay at Barcelona this summer, and he is willing to be patient while taking a pay cut, but he is unlikely to stay at home for five months to do so.
Messi was faced with two options: one was to sign a contract with Barcelona at a significantly reduced salary to help the team complete registration within the constraints of the salary cap and agree to make up for financial losses in the future with a new contract. The second is to choose to leave before the end of August to ensure that registration is completed before the start of the new season. For Barcelona, the top brass are confident of signing Messi this summer. Laporta said in an interview, "You will soon get that news we are all waiting for. I can't disclose the details of the negotiations right now, but I can say that the progress so far has satisfied both sides. Messi has always said that he wants to stay at Barcelona, and negotiations on extending Messi's contract are progressing."
