LIONEL MESSI is edging closer to committing his future to Barcelona after the club offered him a ten-year deal, according to reports.
The mini maestro is out of contract this summer following last summer’s high-profile fallout.
Messi, 33, wanted to leave at the end of last season following the turmoil on and off the pitch but Barca demanded £625million to let him leave.
Joan Laporta has since been re-appointed as the club’s president and has been working tooth and nail to keep Messi at his boyhood club.
According to the Times, a lucrative new contract is on the table for the superstar following talks between Laporta and Messi’s father.
It gives Messi the option of staying at the Nou Camp in the short-term before having a final career swansong in the MLS.
He will continue in an ambassadorial role before returning to Barcelona as a club executive when he decided to hang up his boots.
The report adds how Messi is desperate to win the Champions League one more time and is willing to take a paycut if it helps the club land a star name.
Barcelona currently have the biggest wage bill in world football and Messi is unsuprisingly the top earner on a staggering £584,000-a-week.
Messi’s close friend and former team-mate Luis Suarez believes he should stay with Barcelona.
The Atletico Madrid forward told TV3: “If Messi asked me as a friend, I would tell him I don’t see him anywhere other than Barca, it wouldn’t be good for him.
“He has to take the decision himself.
“The best would be for him to have a final three, four, five or six years at the place where he’s felt most happy.
“Barca is the team that have given him everything and he too has given everything for Barca.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
