Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 00:01• Yanick Vos • Last update: 00:04

Lionel Messi is officially clubless. Barcelona have failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension with the Argentine in recent months. At midnight his contract expired, which means that he is no longer associated with Barça on paper. In recent days there have been various reports in the Spanish media that there would be an agreement on a new contract until the summer of 2022 or 2023, but according to Goal the parties involved are still not in agreement.

Joan Laporta, president of the Catalans, recently indicated in the media that he is calm under the contract situation and looks forward with confidence to a future together with 34-year-old Messi. “We want him to stay and Leo wants to stay. Everything is under control. We just need to find a solution to the financial fair play issue. We are working to find the best solution for both parties,” said the president. The fact that the captain is no longer under contract with the club worries the supporters. Formally, Messi can no longer extend his contract and Barcelona will have to sign him.

The construction of the re-contract could be a stumbling block for the Catalans. Barcelona will have to register Messi in LaLiga as a new signing. Laporta will then have to find a creative way to make the Argentinian comply with the financial fair play rules of the competition with a new contract. LaLiga is not expected to be very flexible due to Barcelona’s financial problems. The club has already exceeded the limit in terms of salary costs. “Barca will have to do a lot of fine-tuning to fit Messi within the salary cap, which some say is even lower than Atlético Madrid’s salary cap,” LaLiga president Javier Tebas said of the Messi issue at an earlier stage.

according to Goal the parties involved are still in talks. According to reports, the fact that there is no progress in the negotiations has to do with the fact that the Messi camp is still considering the Barcelona proposal. Messi’s image rights are said to be the biggest point of discussion. However, both club and player hope to reach an agreement in the near future.

Barcelona are convinced that Messi will extend his contract at the Camp Nou, although it is still unclear when the deal will be finalized. That could take weeks, as Messi and the Argentina national team participate in the Copa América in Brazil. The final is scheduled for July 11. Goal reports that Messi is calm under his contract situation and that he wants to focus fully on the tournament in hopes of winning his first major trophy with the national team.