Lionel Messi WON'T be sold by Barcelona... but it could be the end for Cesc Fabregas
Barcelona's board have moved to calm fears that Lionel Messi will be sold after the World Cup but have been left in no doubt by supporters that the sale of Cesc Fabregas would not be met with opposition.
Fabregas was jeered onto the pitch when he replaced Xavi with 20 minutes left of Barcelona’s league game with Athletic Bilbao at the weekend and just over 80 per cent of over 13,000 supporters voting on Diario Sport’s online poll said the club should cash in if the right offer comes in.
Asked about the boos for Fabregas, coach Gerardo Martino said after Sunday’s game: 'All I can say is Cesc is someone who has never hidden. He always wants to play and he is someone who has no fear.'
VIDEO Scroll down for Messi, Iniesta, and Xavi - Barca training at the Nou Camp
Going nowhere! The Barcelona board have quashed fears that Lionel Messi is ready to leave the club this summer
Trouble in paradise: Cesc Fabregas was booed by Barca supporters on Sunday and could be sold by the club
Team-mate Andres Iniesta added: 'Let’s hope it was just an isolated incident. I don’t think the supporters have anything personal against Cesc.'
Messi appeared not to celebrate scoring Barcelona’s winning goal but will have been buoyed by positive noises being made by the club’s president Josep Bartomeu who said: 'He has always led the team and we have not doubts he will continue to lead us. He is the best in the world and we want to renew his contract in accordance with that fact.'
Messi is understood to want 25m euros a year but the club are pushing for a change in the player’s image rights agreement to help them meet the demands.
In what has been described as one of his worst ever seasons Messi is now just two goals short of La Liga’s top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo is the current top earner in La Liga with an estimated take home pay of 21m euros a year but Real Madrid take around 45 percent of the players image rights - a position not enjoyed by Barcelona in relation to Messi’s commercial earnings.
Bigger questions: Messi has cut a forlorn figure for the Catalans during large spells of this poor season
Most watched Sport videos
- Heartwarming moment NY Red Bulls players give their coats to mascots
- Steph Houghton trains with England team mates ahead of World Cup
- Gareth Southgate comments on design change of new England shirt
- Fake clip claiming to show Swift and Kelce falling off a swing
- New York Jets star Sauce Gardner claims Jewish people 'run the world'
- Kelce dances to Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' on the golf course
- Travis and Jason Kelce CLASH over who would win a drinking contest
- NRL star Liam Knight dying his hair a very white blonde
- YouTuber buys Marcus Rashford's wrecked £700k Rolls-Royce
- David Seaman on Southgate, England & EURO 2024
- Kate Abdo's partner broken speaks on Carragher's 'loyalty' joke
- A brawl erupts between Sydney Roosters and Rabbitohs fans