Jorge Messi, the father of Argentine and disgruntled Barcelona footballer, Lionel Messi, has arrived in Barcelona to lead talks on the future of his son’s career and his desire to move away from the Catalan club.
Jorge Messi arrived on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, at 6:45am, local time onboard a private jet, reports say.
He boarded the jet from Rosario in Argentina and landed in the private terminal of the Barcelona-El Prat airport.
He will hold crunch meetings with Barcelona’s officials on Wednesday and Thursday, September 2 and 3rd respectively.
One of those expected to be in attendance at the meeting is Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
The rest of the Barcelona board are also due to attend the meeting on Wednesday to resolve the impasse between Messi and Barcelona over his contract situation.
Messi has expressed his desire to move away from Barcelona, expressing his intention to trigger a release clause that says he can leave on a free transfer.
Barcelona and La Liga have opposed that, saying he cannot leave a free man.
La Liga have said that Messi’s €700 million release clause is still valid and must be paid in full before leaving Barcelona.
Official: La Liga have confirmed that if Messi wants to leave Barcelona, his full release clause must be paid for. [laliga]
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 30, 2020
By Melvin Tarlue