Lionel Messi: Man City, PSG, Juventus - what is the latest transfer situation?

                     

If we are talking percentages then Manchester City are very much in the driving seat to be Lionel Messi's next club.

Paris St-Germain have been in touch with Messi's dad, his agent, again about the possibility of signing the Barcelona captain, who submitted a transfer request on Tuesday.And, perhaps most intriguingly of all, Juventus are now looking at the hugely unlikely scenario of organising some very daring financial deals and sponsorships that could see Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing together for the first time.

What a mouth-watering prospect that would be. But it is also close to impossiblAt the end of a week of countless headlines and rumours, there are two things we now definitely know above anything else, namely that Messi very much wants to leave Barcelona and Barcelona would very much like him to stay.That is the simple analysis of what promises to become an even more complicated scenario than it already is.And the reason for that is that both sides are ABSOLUTELY convinced that the clause of 10 June - the one that enables Messi to leave for free - gives them the right to defend their position.Messi thinks he can walk away for nothing because that date was intended to be, effectively, the end of the season, but because of coronavirus the campaign ended up finishing much later, on 23 August with the Champions League final, two days before Messi let Barcelona know of his intentions in an official way (more on that later).Barcelona firmly believe that the time for him to declare his intentions to leave has elapsed and that he is contracted until the end of next season.The lawyers will be licking their lips in anticipation.