Mr. Wednesday's trivia is has been postponed.. MASSIVE soccer news, Messi, one of the three best players of ALL time announced he wants to leave Barcelona, where he's been for 2 decades. He's won 34 major trophies, and scored over 640 competitive goals.. It's a huge deal.
There are tons of things that gone wrong to get to this point, but the most amazing thing I saw last night, was that fans were protesting outside Barca's headquarters in anger at management for letting it get to this point. It's been poor recruiting and purchases and a revolving door of coaches. Some of the blame might be on Messi's power within in the club or his MASSIVE 100 mil a year salary. (yes, it's costing them that much, don't let other numbers lie, it's rough that much.. most clubs and players report release or disclose their contract numbers in weekly figure AFTER taxes... so he's on 800k or something like that a week AFTER taxes, which is something around 40 or 50 percent.. you can do the math, and that doesn't include bonus, and the payout of the Loyalty bonus (aka. 120 mil SIGNING BONUS.. ) ) But the fact is that they have not been able to transition of their aging core to fresh blood and when they have brought in the fresh blood it has not worked.
The real question is where does he end up? The smart money is on Man City, but because of Financial Fair Play, they can't really afford a transfer fee. Which is the other MASSIVE issue.
Sidebar -- so at the end of each season Messi has a clause in his contract that says, if he chooses he can terminate his contract and leave to play somewhere else. So what he did yesterday, was essentially activate that clause through a BuroFax, which is why it came through that service, because it is essentially a secure wire service for documents. However in Barca's mind this clause expired in June when the season was suppose to end. However, according to FIFA the season ended in August, making Messi well within his rights to terminate the contract. Clearly if there is a date specified in the contract none of this would be an issue. However, my guess is that there was not, which is why we are looking at a court battle, one that I think Messi will win. Thus allowing him to leave for free.
So with that in mind Barca has two options, keep Messi for another year with a prolonged court battle, one which they will certainly lose face, and probably lose. Or accept a cut rate fee from one of the two teams that could afford a 150 mil to 200 mil dollar fee. Which apparently Man U is prepared to offer.
This is sooo interesting and I can't wait to see how it unfolds, but I have a strange feeling that Messi will be at United next season.. Barca doesn't want a court battle and 150 or whatever they are going to offer is better than nothing.. TAKE the money and the massive contract off the book and start the rebuild with Fati, Puig, and the rest of the young players..