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Lionel Messi 'would only leave Barcelona for Champions League contenders'

Messi 'would only leave Barcelona for CL contenders'
© Reuters
Barcelona captain Lionel Messi will reportedly only leave Camp Nou in the quest for Champions League glory, but clubs will have to fork out €100m for the 33-year-old.

Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi would reportedly only leave the Catalan giants for a club capable of winning the Champions League.

Barca were torn to shreds by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of Europe's elite competition on Friday, a result which ultimately led to manager Quique Setien's dismissal.

La Blaugrana are expected to undergo significant changes ahead of the 2020-21 campaign, and with Messi's contract set to expire next summer, the temptation of winning another Champions League trophy could supposedly lead the six-time Ballon d'Or winner to seek pastures new in the near future.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Spanish football expert Graham Hunter said: "If [Messi] is motivated and fit there is every reason to argue he could be exceptional for another three or four years, he just turned 33 in June.

"His contract no longer has that get-out-of-jail-free clause wherein every May the last two or three seasons he could have informed the club he wanted to leave for free.

"This board, for as long as they stay in power, and I think that will be until at least March, will not want to be tainted by being the ones that let Messi escape, as well as being tainted for being known as the board which failed to bring the best out of the final golden years of Messi.

"Clubs who want him are suddenly going to be asked for €100m for a 33-year-old, and it's possible there might be one or two willing to pay that, but he then has to look around and say if I'm disrupting my life and taking my family out of a place where I've always said I wanted to stay, will he be joining a winning franchise?

"He doesn't want to leave for more money or just to be out of the mess that is going on around him, he wants to win the Champions League. It's a very complicated equation to work out how he leaves, or to where he might go.

"Of course, he is waiting to see the developments [regarding the board and manager] and whether he believes that might make a difference to him staying and winning at Barcelona."

Following Setien's sacking, former Barca player and current Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman has been tipped to take over in the Camp Nou dugout.

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Barcelona boss Quique Setien watches on as his side are dismantled by Bayern Munich on August 15, 2020
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