BARCELONA: After dozens of titles, hundreds of goals and countless records, Lionel Messi’s spectacular career at Barcelona could be coming to an abrupt end.

The divorce may turn ugly, too.

Messi told Barca on Tuesday that he wants to leave after nearly two decades at the club, having grown unhappy after a trophy-less season ended with a humiliating loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Barca confirmed to The Associated Press that Messi sent the club a document expressing his desire to leave. But the club hinted that a legal battle could be coming and said it won’t automatically grant the Argentina great his wishes. Barca said they told Messi in response that they want him to stay and finish his career at the club.

The dispute centres around a clause in Messi’s contract.

Barca said the document sent by Messi referenced a clause allowing him to leave for free at the end of the season. However, the club said the deadline for triggering that clause expired in June and that it would seek legal advice. Messi’s contract also includes a 700 million euro ($826 million) buyout clause.

The Spanish season would normally have ended in May but was pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 33-year-old’s demand, faxed by his lawyers, prompted protests against Barcelona’s under-fire president Josep Maria Bartomeu outside the Camp Nou where Messi, synonymous with the club’s most successful period, is worshipped by fans.

“And the bomb explodes: ‘I want to leave Barca’,” headlined Spain’s best-selling Marca newspaper on Wednesday.

“The Messi bomb: He wants to leave,” read Catalan sports daily Mundo Deportivo, while Sport newspaper headlined “All-out war!”

Argentine sports daily Ole described Messi’s wish to leave as a “complete bombshell”.

The Argentine’s request to leave Barca comes a day after Spanish media reported that new coach Ronald Koeman told Messi’s close friend and strike partner, Luis Suarez, that he does not wish the Uruguayan to stay at the club.

Other reports said that Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal, Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic and French defender Samuel Umtiti have also been told they are no longer wanted.

Barca are in the midst of overhauling their squad following the 8-2 defeat by Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals earlier this month, which condemned the club to a trophyless season for the first time in 12 years.

DRASTIC CHANGES

The defeat has sparked drastic changes. Coach Quique Setien was sacked after barely six months in charge, and sporting director Eric Abidal was also dismissed.

According to Spanish media, Messi met with Koeman last week and told the Dutchman he saw himself “more out than in” at the club.

Koeman has vowed to “fight to put Barca back on top” and said at his unveiling he was hopeful Messi would remain at the club for several more years.

If Messi can leave for free, he will have no shortage of suitors. However, only a handful of clubs could realistically afford to pay his wages even without a transfer fee — with mega-rich Paris St Germain and Manchester City widely seen as perhaps the most likely destinations.

Messi has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards during his time at Barca as the top player in the world, and has helped the club win 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns.

Messi had been outspoken about his dissatisfaction with some of Barca’s decisions this season, talking about the team’s problems and contesting club directors. He has grown increasingly unhappy in the last 12 months with how the club is being run under president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Messi had been silent since the loss to Bayern, though, raising doubts about his future. The defeat may have been the tipping point for the playmaker. He and his team-mates faced furious Barca fans who confronted them and criticised the team at the club’s training centre after the squad returned from Portugal.

BACKED BY PUYOL

Messi arrived at Barca as a teenager in 2001, joining the club’s famed La Masia youth academy. He first-team debut happened in 2003 as a 16-year-old, and since then he led Barcelona to 34 titles. He holds most individual records at the club, scoring 634 goals and making 276 assists in 731 appearances with the club.

Former Barcelona defender Carles Puyol, who was the club captain during much of Messi’s career, tweeted his support to the Argentine.

“Respect and admiration, Leo. All my support, friend,” Puyol wrote, to which Suarez replied with two applause emojis.

Vidal also tweeted: “When you shut a tiger in a cage he doesn’t give in, he fights back.”

Ex-Barca president Joan Laporta blamed Bartomeu for the stance taken by Messi.

“Bartomeu and his board should quit immediately. They have undermined Messi to save them from the sporting and financial mess they have created. If they quit there might be some hope that Messi stays at Barca,” he tweeted.

Catalonia’s regional leader Quim Torra appeared to accept that Barca’s best ever player, who in 2019 was given the Creu de Sant Jordi award for services to the region, was about to leave.

He tweeted: “Catalonia will always be your home. Many thanks for all the happy moments and for your extraordinary football. We have been so lucky to share so many years of our lives with the best player in the world and a noble sportsman.”

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2020