The Argentine ace and FC Barcelona’s hotshot Lionel Messi have recently said no to a contract renewal with the Spanish giant FC Barcelona.
According to the Marca report the five times Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has rejected the offer of a new contract extension and will see out his current deal, which ends in 2018, over concerns regarding his tax fraud case.
The 29-year-old Argentine international and FC Barcelona’s ace Lionel Messi was given a 21-month sentence after being found guilty of three counts of tax evasion but did not serve time behind bars.
BREAKING: Lionel Messi is not signing a new contract at Barca because of this.. Really shocking!https://t.co/aVSyhySfq2 pic.twitter.com/6xqh0Rsd4Q
— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) November 14, 2016
A couple of days ago in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu stated,
"Right now Leo Messi has a contract to the end of the Russian World Cup [in 2018] and we are very happy with him. Very happy,"
"I don’t know what will happen in the future but of course we will always try to explain to him that he is at the best club in the world and this is the best place for him to live and he is living the best experience of his life with us.”
And when Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu asked about the renewal of Messi contract, Josep appeared confident of retaining Messi's long-term services,
"Messi? Not yet. But we will have the negotiation with Messi in the next couple of months.”