Lionel Messi ‘to hold press conference TOMORROW to discuss Barcelona exit’

Lionel Messi has called a press conference from the Nou Camp to discuss his Barcelona exit after ending his 21-year tenure in Catalonia.

The Spanish club sent shockwaves through world football when they announced on Thursday that Messi would not re-sign for the club, with his contract having expired at the start of last month.

Barca president Joan Laporta held a press conference on Friday to discuss the bombshell news and now, according to Fabrizio Romano, Messi will do the same on Sunday.

Barcelona announced this week that they would not be renewing Messi’s contract this summer

Messi is yet to make a public statement since his Barcelona departure was confirmed, with Laporta telling the media that the Argentine wanted to stay at the club for a further two years. 

PSG have emerged as the frontrunners to land Messi on a free, with negotiations already underway involving president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Messi’s father, Jorge. 

Messi was pictured with PSG stars Neymar, Leandro Paredes, Angel di Maria and Marco Verratti earlier this week in an image posted by the Brazilian on Instagram, further fuelling speculation that he could be moving to the French capital. 

Barcelona’s crippling financial woes is behind Messi’s exit from the club, with Laporta confirming that the board elected to protect the club’s finances rather than put the Catalonians at risk by handing Messi a mega-money contract.

The world is waiting for Messi to make his next step after ending his 21-year spell in Catalonia

The Argentine has been closely linked with PSG and was pictured with their star players 

An emotional Laporta told his press conference on Friday: ‘The base of everything is the previous administration’s disastrous management which we inherited.

‘Some decisions might even have been criminal. I’m not talking about signings. Some are hard to understand. They must have been under pressure but it led to this situation now.’ 

Laporta said Barcelona offered Messi a two-year deal and that the Argentine was willing for the contract to be paid over five years, so as to help the club with the financial burden. However, LaLiga did not permit the club to circumvent their financial rules in this manner.

Joan Laporta slammed Barcelona’s old hierarchy for Lionel Messi’s departure from the club

Laporta laid the blame at Josep Maria Bartomeu’s (left) financial mistakes before Messi’s exit

‘Messi tried to make it easy for us in negotiations,’ Laporta added. ‘The first offer was two years of salary to be paid in five years. We thought that was allowed in the regulations of fair play. It’s not allowed here but it is in other countries.’ 

The Barcelona chief also revealed that they had contingency plans for Messi to leave the club in two years’ time, but had to accelerate those plans when the player was not able to be kept.  

‘We were all thinking for two years but if he wanted more, we could negotiate, he claimed,’ he said.

‘But two years at Barca is what we all wanted. We wanted the post-Messi era to start in two years. We had to bring that forward.’