FC Barcelona

Barcelona have been in a difficult place this season. On the pitch, their performances have been patchy, as they have struggled psychologically to get over last year's humiliating 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield—the latest in several capitulations in the knockout stages of the competition in recent years.

Off the pitch, the club have been mired in controversy and infighting. Every month, it seems, team captain Lionel Messi surfaces on social media to berate the club's hierarchy. Before the suspension of the league in March, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Barca's fans had been waving handkerchiefs at the Camp Nou in protest at club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who is dogged by a scandal involving social media company I3 Ventures, which had allegedly been smearing his enemies, including Messi and Gerard Pique.

The one shining light to emerge from the season so far has been the eruption of Ansu Fati.

He has broken several records since his La Liga debut as a 16-year-old in August. These include becoming the youngest scorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League when he fired in a goal from outside Inter Milan's box at the San Siro Stadium in December.

Fati's first La Liga goal for the club—which made him the youngest Barcelona player in history to score in the league—came within five minutes of appearing as a substitute against Osasuna at their El Sadar Stadium in Pamplona, a famously tight and inhospitable ground for visiting teams. 

It was only Fati's second game for Barca after a brief cameo the week before against Real Betis in La Liga. Notably, it took Messi nine games before the 18-year-old scored in an official game for Barcelona in 2005. Fati leapt to nod in Barcelona's first goal in a 2-2 draw. The cross for the goal, which came from Carles Perez, wasn't travelling at speed, but Fati managed to power it home from distance.

"I was working with Onda Cero radio here in Pamplona for the game," says Inaki Lorda, a Spanish football journalist. "After the final whistle, I went down to see the players. His physique really impressed me.

"He was still only 16 years of age at this stage, but you could see how strong he was, even though he still has more to grow. He's not a frail young guy like, say, Riqui Puig. The header Ansu scored was evidence of this—the spring he made to get on the end of it in between two big central defenders was incredible. You could see he has something special."

Barcelona's then-coach Ernesto Valverde—who was labouring with an injury crisis to several of his attacking players, including Messi, Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez—started Fati against Valencia in the next round of league games. Fati lit up the Camp Nou with a virtuoso display, scoring within two minutes of kick-off.

Albert Puig—who manages Albirex Niigata in Japan as well as heading up APFC, a coaching methodology company—was the man responsible for bringing Fati to Barcelona in 2012 when Puig worked as director of La Masia, Barcelona's famous youth academy. 

"I love this guy Ansu Fati," says Puig. "He's a very versatile footballer. He can play in all of the attacking positions—at 9, 11, 7, 10. He's also fast and he has a great imagination. It comes from playing street football where he grew up in Africa. If you travel to Africa, you'll understand what I'm talking about—this innate football intelligence.

"I lived in Africa for a year. It produces a certain kind of player. It's different with kids in the western world who live more comfortable lives and maybe understand the language of football, but more in an academic way.

"When Ansu was growing up, he got to spend so much of his time playing freely in [pick-up] games. It's the ideal way to create a player who can improvise. He's very smart. In Spanish, we say a player like Ansu is 'espabilado'—sharp as a tack. He sees instinctively things on the pitch other players don't pick up on because he spent so much of his childhood playing outdoors in Africa."

After a blistering start to the season, the Guinea-Bissau native's progress has stalled, however. After scoring a brace in a league game against Levante at the Camp Nou in early February, his chances under new head coach Quique Setien—who has favoured emergency signing 28-year-old Martin Braithwaite as an impact player—have largely dried up. 

"Setien needs guarantees," says Lorda. "Ansu Fati is very exciting, but he's not a guarantee. Braithwaite is proven—he's a finished article. He played well at Leganes before joining Barcelona. He's an interesting signing. It made sense to get him. He's not elite—he's not an Antoine Griezmann or a Suarez or Messi—but he's a good footballer and he's the kind of player that fills out a squad well. He knew from day one that he's not a guaranteed starter.

"Braithwaite gives Setien a level of confidence. Setien has shown that he trusts, too, in veteran players like Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic. I'm sure he'd love to give more chances to Ansu Fati and, say, Riqui Puig, but Barcelona at the moment is a very unsettled place, so he'd prefer to put his trust in the old guard." 

Braithwaite's arrival and the imminent return from injury of the more senior Dembele, who also plays in Fati's position, has left Fati's career at a crossroads. There will also likely be further arrivals this summer. Already, for example, Barcelona paid a reported fee of €31 million in January for the Portuguese starlet Trincao, another wide player, who is set to join the squad next season from Braga.

Last week, Diario Sport reported that Borussia Dortmund are interested in Fati for next season as a possible replacement for Jadon Sancho (if, as suspected, he's sold to an English Premier League club). Fati's profile fits the Bundesliga club—fast and a pure wide player—which is also renowned for developing young talent.  

The possible return of Neymar Jr. to the Camp Nou or the signing of Lautaro Martinez—who has long been linked with a move from Inter Milan as a long-term replacement for Suarez—adds to the uncertainty around Fati's prospects in the Catalan city next season.

"There are so many factors that will affect Ansu Fati's position on Barcelona's squad next season," says Juan Bautista, a journalist with Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia. "If Neymar arrives or not. If the club signs Lautaro. Does Suarez have one more good year? It will be difficult for Ansu to get minutes. It would be easier for him if, for example, Dembele left.

"There are many variables at play. The club also needs to find a solution for Philippe Coutinho, who will be returning from a loan spell. Because of the coronavirus and a deflated transfer market, it will be difficult to sell players if Barca insist on not selling players at cut-price rates.

"To loan out Ansu is a logical solution when you've got players like Dembele and Coutinho who cost so much money. You either sell them cheaply or else they'll have to stay. Nobody is going to pay over €100 million for a player now, especially for a player who is as injury-prone as Dembele or as big a failure as Coutinho was at the Camp Nou. Only an English Premier League team could possibly afford the sums of money required."

Barcelona will be anxious not to let Fati's development run aground. He's already become their 10th-most valuable player, according to Transfermarkt, a German football analysis website. It's vital that he gets the oxygen of game time to continue his progress, but he'll have to compete with several heavyweights for precious minutes next season. 

"If Ansu stays, the club will have to convince him he will be a useful player on the squad," says Bautista. "What can't happen is that he spends a year without playing or only playing a tiny bit. At his age, he needs to develop. 

"In Barcelona, he's often compared with Messi, but there is only one Messi. Even Messi in the summer when he first made Barca's first-team squad in 2005, there were a lot of negotiations afoot. I remember, for example, Espanyol were interested in getting Messi on loan. 

"Then Messi played for Barca in the Joan Gamper Trophy [a pre-season tournament] against Juventus. He wowed their coach, Fabio Capello, who asked Barca's coach, Frank Rijkaard, if he could take him on loan. It opened Barcelona's eyes and they realised: 'We have to keep this guy.'

"Maybe something similar will have to happen with Ansu. He'll have to break down the wall and say, 'I'm very good and I want to play more. Either you get rid of me or you find a solution for me.' Let's see."

     

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

One of the world's top defenders in the late '90s, Carlos Gamarra witnessed Ronaldinho's rise to fame in Brazil but was never actually what you may call a close friend. Yet, when he heard that the former Barcelona player had been thrown behind bars in Asuncion, the Paraguayan legend felt compelled to pay him a visit out of respect.

Gamarra spent a whole morning with Ronaldinho inside the country's maximum-security Agrupacion Especializada jail. That day, a particular image stuck with him.

"Honestly, I was impressed by the number of children surrounding him, asking for pictures, autographs. We all know he's a global star, but that really surprised me," he says.

Ronaldinho and his older brother and manager, Roberto de Assis, were incarcerated on March 6, on suspicion of using fake passports to enter the country. Every day, groups of kids would gather in front of the complex hoping to be allowed in and get a selfie with the Brazilian, even though most of them would be too young to remember the famous No. 10's World Cup win in 2002 or his Ballon d'Or triumph in 2005. 

During Ronaldinho's first week or so in prison, prison warden Blas Veras even organised what was jokingly referred to as "Ronaldinho's mini-tour," so the young fans could meet him for a brief moment at the outside patio of prison. 

"With the coronavirus crisis, I couldn't do that anymore. It was a shame. Ronaldinho enjoyed having them around," he explains.

The man who ruled football with a wide, buck-toothed grin before the emergence of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remains a popular figure, despite having officially retired in 2018.

However, when he turned 40 in March, the celebrations consisted of just him, his brother and a cake brought by one of his lawyers into his small Paraguayan cell. 

It's fair to assume that this was not what the renowned party-goer Ronaldinho would have had in mind for such an occasion.

At that point, the Brazil wizard was supposed to be receiving tributes from the football world.

Instead, in his own homeland, the biggest TV network, Globo, was holding discussions on whether to cancel a three-episode special of his career that had cost them months of production time. Eventually, they decided to go ahead with it.

Meanwhile, Ronaldinho tried to maintain a routine in prison.

Inmates at Agrupacion Especializada jail have to deal with mosquitos from a nearby river and the risk of getting dengue fever, while one of the three prison blocks houses dangerous criminals.

However, Ronaldinho spent most of his time in another area with 25 inmates and, among other privileges, had a TV in his cell. According to Globosport, he watched Atletico Madrid's 3-2 win over Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League from his cell.

In total, Ronaldinho was in prison for 32 days.

Last week, following his lawyers' fourth request, a Paraguayan judge finally decided to release him from jail into house arrest after he and his brother paid $1.6 million in bail and agreed not to leave the country.

The judge relayed his ruling to them in a WhatsApp video call. At the end of it, wearing his traditional black beret, Ronaldinho just gave him the "hang loose" sign and smiled.

Ronaldinho and his brother Roberto Assis were given their court hearing by a judge via a video call (🎥 @edgar_cantero) https://t.co/y5hGCRL7q1

— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 8, 2020

Since then, he has been staying at the Palmaroga hotel, which has an average rate of about $64 per night, in central Asuncion, just three kilometres away from the penitentiary where he was imprisoned for over a month. Guards have been controlling the perimeter of the building. 

How did one of the greatest players of all time end up like this?

The immediate temptation—and it's an understandable one, considering his post-retirement fame back home as the "king of the random gigs"—was to take the first pictures of him having a kickabout in prison as just another chapter in Ronaldinho's colourful story. This time, though, there was no reason to laugh. 

So far, 15 people have already been detained in the case, which began with the false passports allegedly used by Ronaldinho and his brother when entering Paraguay on March 4, but that has since snowballed into an investigation into a possible money-laundering scheme.

One of Ronaldinho's lawyers, Adolfo Marin, insisted that the Brazil icon thought he had received the passport and documents "as a gift."

"He didn't know he was committing a crime. He's daft," Marin told Folha de S. Paulo.

Such a statement might sound a bit harsh, but it's not regarded as completely inappropriate by those familiar with his inner circle.

While his incredible talent mesmerised fans and made him football's brightest star in the early 2000s, Ronaldinho never seemed in charge of his own life or aware of what was going on around him.

The fact that many of his compatriots didn't see his photo in handcuffs as a massive shock says it all about how far his prestige had sunk.

Ronaldinho having a kickabout in a Paraguayan prison. 🙌pic.twitter.com/J7qjIcjTdY

— Footy (@Footy) March 30, 2020

"He has always been so focused on playing that, when Brazil were kicked out by Cameroon from the 2000 Olympic Games, he didn't even know about the golden goal rule and stayed there looking confused, wondering what was happening," recalls Diogo Olivier, a football columnist for Zero Hora who has followed Ronaldinho for the duration of his career.

"But at some point, there's got to be a limit to all that. If you are a 40-year-old, you must realise that if you enter a foreign country with a fake passport, you are going to be detained. At such an age, you need to have some responsibility in your decisions.

"Ronaldinho has this reputation for being in the dark when it comes to off-the-pitch matters. And the worst part is that it's indeed true. He doesn't have a clue about his business.

"Ronaldinho's family built a bubble for him and said, 'You go there and play and let us handle the rest.' And he was thrown inside that bubble very early because his potential was ridiculous. So he has been there since the age of 14 and never really had to worry about anything else. I truly believe that he could not have known for sure what he was doing in Paraguay. I truly believe in it."

Throughout Ronaldinho's entire journey from a modest Porto Alegre background to stardom, it was Assis' job to make sure this bubble was never penetrated by any negativity.

A former footballer himself, the man Ronaldinho usually calls "patrao" (boss) was a breakthrough star at Gremio, having lifted the Brazilian Cup in 1989. At the time, he was seen as a future international, but instead of waiting for a call-up, he accepted a lucrative offer from Sion in Switzerland, a decision that disrupted his rise and ultimately sealed his destiny as a journeyman.

In his late 20s, playing in Japan, he was already taking care of Ronaldinho's career from afar, turning down bids from PSV Eindhoven and trying to shield his brother from the same mistakes he made. 

Assis was not just an older brother to the smiling boy. After their father died in tragic circumstances, drowning in their swimming pool, Assis became the man of the house.

The Assis Moreira family had moved into that luxurious home just a few months before their father's death. 

The house had been a reward from Gremio following Assis' decision to sign a new contract and refuse a proposal from Torino. In order to put those memories behind, Assis decided to get rid of the pool a while later. 

Having gone through all that together, it should not come as a surprise that Ronaldinho trusts Assis blindly.

The main issue, however, is that Assis also has a reputation for being greedy, which has ended up causing trouble for the FIFA 2004 and 2005 world player of the year on multiple occasions.

Despite being widely known as Ronaldinho Gaucho (an adjective used to describe those born in the Rio Grande do Sul state), Ronaldinho is far from a hero in his hometown—quite the opposite in fact. 

Quem Lembra: Em 1988 Ronaldinho Gaúcho aos 7 anos ao Lado do irmão Assis com a camisa do Torino Itália pic.twitter.com/LfTnu8TQ3B

— Memórias Do Futebol (@MemoriasFutebol) October 15, 2015

He can't even walk the streets of his hometown of Porto Alegre these days because of past rows with his boyhood club, Gremio. In both of them, Assis played a major role.

Firstly, by taking Ronaldinho to Paris Saint-Germain at the end of his contract in 2001 and leaving the Brazilian team without a single penny; and later, on Ronaldinho's return home 10 years later, when he encouraged a bidding war between Flamengo, Palmeiras and Gremio only to choose the Rio de Janeiro side in the end.

"Despite all that, Ronaldinho still sees Assis as a guy that gave up his youth to take care of his family, so there's an enormous debt of gratitude between them," Olivier argues.

"When they went through a tough time, it was Assis who tackled the problem and even retired from football earlier to take care of Ronaldinho."

Vinicius Grissi, a football pundit for Bandeirantes and 98 FM, adds: "It's difficult to say that this unconditional trust was Ronaldinho's biggest mistake. After all, Assis' influence on his life has been enormous since his early playing days.

"In other words, even with such a great talent, he may not have reached as far as he did if he didn't have a person by his side. It's no secret that off the pitch Ronaldinho has never been someone who decided his own future. It has always been in somebody else's hands, especially his brother."

This sort of dependence is not strange at all among Brazilian players.

"We've had Adriano and his father, a relationship of much affection, but also reliance. Neymar and his dad, too, even though this one is slightly different—less emotionally dependent and more based on the complete trust in decisions. I think that they are possibly the best comparison we can make to Ronaldinho and Assis," argues Leonardo Bertozzi, a football analyst for ESPN.

"When Ronaldinho left Milan and came back to Brazil, Assis sat with three teams to negotiate, saying different things to each one of them.

"Ronaldinho could have been firmer and made his voice more heard in such situations, but he clearly didn't."

Right now, while still in custody in Paraguay, he's certainly got plenty of time to think about past mistakes from Room 104 at the Palmaroga hotel.

In recent years, his name was dragged into controversies such as an unpaid $2.5 million fine for environmental damage, having his Brazil passport confiscated, being rumoured as a possible senate candidate for the country's far-right-wing party, advertising for shady companies and standing trial on an alleged pyramid scheme.

Ronaldinho has endured a rough fall from grace, but at 40, he can still ensure that his football legacy is not fully destroyed by his post-retirement activities.

"[Diego] Maradona always comes to my mind in such cases—a very problematic character, who also had his share of messes. I still remember the image of him escaping from Italy in 1991 amid the whole [cocaine] scandal," Bertozzi says.

"Obviously, the human being's reputation can be affected in those circumstances, but the memories from the player will certainly find a way to impose themselves."

"Ronaldinho was the only guy who could have really matched Pele's status. I watched him since the very beginning and I've never seen anyone as talented with the ball. With a bit more discipline out of the field, he could have been a much bigger player, someone to win five Ballon d'Or crowns," Olivier concludes.

Instead, Ronaldinho has seen himself go from arguably the world's best No. 10 to Prisoner No. 194 in a Paraguayan jail. His biggest challenges now lie off the pitch.

       

Follow Marcus on Twitter: @_marcus_alves

With no football being played to divert the attention, Barcelona are suddenly being exposed as a club in crisis.

There have been issues behind the scenes all season, the latest of which came on Friday when six directors resigned. One of them, Emili Rousaud, even told RAC1 (h/t Marca): "I think someone has had their hand in the till."

Such a comment will not sit well with president Josep Maria Bartomeu, but he is now under mounting pressure to bring forward club elections.

It's all very tense, and there are serious worries about how issues in the background will begin to impact the team on the pitch.

A month without fixtures is beginning to affect how they plan financially, sources in Spain told Bleacher Report. Players have agreed to cut their wages by 70 per cent, and the club also applied for an ERTE (Temporary Reduction of Employment Action) in order to pay other club staff.

A report from The Athletic's Dermot Corrigan on April 6 also said, "Barca's 2019-20 budget needs £109 million income from player trading to balance the books." 

Yet somehow they continue to be linked with signing the likes of Neymar and Lautaro Martinez—so how does this all add up?

Here, we take a look at the most prominent rumours for players moving both in and out of the club this year and how they might pan out.

     

In

Neymar

In a dream world, Barcelona bring Neymar back to the club as soon as possible—we already saw them attempt it last summer.

He's probably going to remain out of reach this time around, too.

Neymar is happier now in Paris than he was a year ago, and the fact that Paris Saint-Germain are into the quarter-finals of the Champions League shows they are closer to matching his ambition.

The other major factor in PSG's favour is that they believe no club in the world has the power to sign him at the end of this season because of the economic circumstances now arising.

La Liga is expected to be hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus, and Neymar's wages—which equate to more than $3 million a year—is a problem on top of any transfer fee, which would be upwards of €160 million (approx $175 million), B/R sources suggest. 

Barca would have to sell at least two big-money players to even consider signing Neymar.

       

Lautaro Martinez

As one of the key performers for Inter Milan in Serie A this season, Martinez has emerged as a target for Barca.

His arrival is more realistic than that of Neymar, particularly as he has a €111 million release clause that can be triggered this summer. Martinez is currently weighing up his options before committing any further to his current employers. No new negotiations have taken place over an improved deal with Inter. 

Aged 22, he has the potential to help Barcelona transition away from star striker Luis Suarez, and he would be linking up with fellow Argentina international Messi—which is an obvious lure. Intermediaries have already touched base to make him aware that formal contact could be on the way soon, and if he leaves Inter, this is where he is most likely to land. 

"This deal can become possible," one Spanish source confidently told B/R.   

      

Kai Havertz

Barca have a long-standing interest in Bayer Leverkusen's Havertz, who is just 20 years old. He has an exciting style of play that would suit them, with his bursts from midfield catching the eye. 

He's been one of the most coveted young players in Europe over the past year, and Barca have remained one of the few clubs genuinely in with a chance of getting him.

They have maintained constant relations with his representatives, yet there is a growing feeling among  Bundesliga insiders that we will stay in Germany.

There is a feeling it might be too soon in his career to move to a new country and also break through at a major club, so B/R sources believe Bayern Munich is his most likely landing spot.

By staying in Germany, he can take a small upwards step, prove himself at the next tier, then look for the major transfer outside of the country in a couple of years.

If Barca can raise the funds, they will make an offer for Havertz, though—so it will be interesting to see how tempting that becomes when actually faced with the opportunity. 

     

Out

Ousmane Dembele

Since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, Dembele has missed 80 matches through injury, with many of those issues relating to his hamstring—a big concern for a young player whose style of play depends heavily on pace and trickery. 

Sources in Spain have acknowledged the chances of Barca ever recouping the €105 million they initially splashed out on him are now slim. While his talent is not in question, clubs will be concerned about how long he can remain fit.

Dembele is contracted to Barca until 2022, and the feeling among sources is that the club are going to give him time to focus fully on his rehabilitation, and only once he has returned to the field again will they begin to think about his future.

There is a sense the player deserves that respect and time. Ideally, Barcelona do not even want to sell him at all.

But this one is going to have to be revisited in the new year before we have a better idea of how the situation pans out.

        

Philippe Coutinho

The transfer from Liverpool has not worked for Coutinho, and now the Spanish club are looking at ways to keep him off their wage bill. They simply need to move on from each other.

Coutinho is currently on loan at Bayern Munich, who have no intention to sign him on a permanent basis.

But the player himself has been refusing to think too far into the future while there is uncertainty around how the COVID-19 pandemic will influence major transfers over the coming year.

One source told B/R he is keen on the idea of returning to the Premier League, and he still holds a good reputation in English football. However, his £240,000-a-week wage from Barca would be a problem for most clubs in the division.

The amount, which equates to around $300,000, would make him the highest earner at most clubs.

Chelsea and Arsenal are being strongly linked. Chelsea would only be interested in a loan deal, and even then they have reservations about how he would fit into their overall structure. 

Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Everton have an interest, but it would depend on the finances. One source suggested Barca will struggle to recoup much more than half the £142 million they paid for him two years ago in this current climate. He needs to go, though, so they are going to have to work hard to find him the ideal transfer.

       

Antoine Griezmann

Barcelona needed a huge loan to complete Griezmann's transfer from Atletico Madrid and, in hindsight, should not have bothered.

He's struggled to find his rhythm in attack with Messi and Luis Suarez, and in March, there had been suggestions from insiders around the club that he would be sold if they received a suitable offer.

Those thoughts were before the coronavirus pandemic kicked in, though. While some involved at the top level would still sell, there is now only a slim chance of being able to offload Griezmann. Of the clubs who could realistically afford him, Manchester United would normally have an interest but are focusing on other deals.

So the only other option might be to use him as a makeweight to bring back Neymar from PSG. It has been considered, but it is believed Griezmann doesn't want to give up on Barca just yet, so he would not be keen on moving to Ligue 1. 

The club are most likely to keep Griezmann for now, but we should expect them to evaluate his situation again in 2021.  

FC Barcelona have threatened legal action against former vice president Emili Rousaud because of allegations he made against the club after resigning this week. 

According to Joe Wright of Goal.com, Rousaud said the following to RAC1 on Friday: "I think someone has had their hand in the treasury, although I don't know who. You pay €1 million [to i3 Ventures] for a job that has a market price of €100,000. I don't know who it was, but I can have an idea, although I don't think it was someone on the board."

In response, Barcelona released a statement which read, in part:

"In the light of the serious and unfounded accusations made this morning by Mr. Emili Rousaud, ex institutional vice president at the Club, in different interviews with the media, FC Barcelona categorically denies any activity that can be described as corruption, therefore, reserves the right to any legal action that may correspond."

Rousaud was one of six Barca board members to step down this week, along with Enrique Tombas, Silvio Elias, Josep Pont, Jordi Calsamiglia and Maria Texidor.

Per Wright, it was reported that the resignations occurred after club president Josep Maria Bartomeu asked that four members step down in an effort to "strengthen support" during what is his final year in office.

Barcelona commented on the reshuffling as part of their statement:

"Finally, the resignations of the members of the Board of Directors announced over the last few hours have come about due to a reorganization of the Board put forward by president Josep Maria Bartomeu and which will be completed in the next few days. 

"This reorganization of the Board of Directors is an attempt to face the challenge of the final phase of the mandate in the best way possible with the objective being the implementation of the necessary measures to prepare for the Club's future, overcoming the consequences of the public health crisis which is currently upon us and to bring to a conclusion the management program began in 2010 and the Strategic Plan approved in 2015."

Rousaud also alleged that Barcelona and PR firm i3 Ventures entered into an agreement meant to improve Bartomeu's image and fight against criticism from current and former Barca players on social media.

Both Barcelona and i3 Ventures have denied any such arrangement.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi refuted speculation he's considering a move to Inter Milan.

Football journalist Fabrizio Romano shared Messi's Instagram post ruling out the possible transfer:

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1248310171891359744

While Messi has spent his entire senior career at Barcelona, his future with the club has been a storyline throughout the season.

The six-time Ballon d'Or winner got into a war of words with sporting director Eric Abidal after the former Barca defender attempted to shift the blame to the players for the sacking of manager Ernesto Valverde.

The Guardian's Sid Lowe noted Messi's contract includes an option that allows him to leave for free this summer. Lowe added that "there is a growing feeling his final years are being wasted" in reference to Messi, who turns 33 in June, and that the Argentinian star may share the opinion.

Barcelona are the two-time reigning La Liga champions, but they threw away a 4-1 first-leg lead in the 2018 Champions League quarter-finals and then watched a 3-0 first-leg lead evaporate the following year in the semi-finals.

The turmoil at Camp Nou isn't limited to Messi's status. ESPN FC's Moises Llorens and Sam Marsden reported club president Josep Maria Bartomeu was attempting to ouster four members from the board: "One source compared life behind the scenes at Camp Nou to hit television drama Game of Thrones, explaining that everyone is vying to position themselves ahead of next summer's presidential elections."

Sky Sports' Lyall Thomas reported in February that Messi intends to see out the full duration of his current deal, which runs through 2021.

Marti Riverola was 20 years old when he made his debut for Barcelona in December 2011. It was at the Camp Nou Stadium for a UEFA Champions League game against BATE Borisov. He wasn't nervous on the eve of the game because he wasn't sure if he'd play. It took him a long time to sleep after Barca's 4-0 win, though, as he was so high on adrenaline and flooded with messages of congratulations from family and friends.

It was peak Lionel Messi time. The Argentinian was in the middle of his most prolific scoring season, netting a record 50 goals in La Liga—though Real Madrid won the league—and tallying an incredible 91 goals in a calendar year. Riverola had not believed his luck when Barca coach Pep Guardiola called him up to train with Messi and Co. for the first team a couple of years earlier.

"At that stage, Messi was my idol, and he still is," Riverola says. "When you first meet him, it's like: Wow! I can't believe I'm meeting Messi. Then five minutes later, you have to calm down and train with him. You have to tackle him. You have to pass him the ball. You're just one more player in the training session. You can't be thinking, Wow, there's Messi over there."

---

Frank Rijkaard gave Maso his first-team debut against Athletic Bilbao in the old San Mames ground in 2006. He was part of the crop from Barcelona's most celebrated collection of youth academy footballers—those players at La Masia who were born in 1987 and known as "the generation of '87", which included Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique. Maso remembers the training sessions at La Masia were ferocious.

"The training matches at the academy were more competitive than the games," he says."Messi in training was very competitive. He always wanted to win. When he got on the ball, you could see he was different to everyone else, even alongside Pique and Cesc. He made things look easy, but whenever he touched the ball, something nearly always happened.

"Messi's personality was very unassuming, very straightforward. He was introverted, but once he got out onto the pitch, he came alive. He's always had a winner's mentality, and he was always thinking about football, football, football, how to be the best. It's what put him at a different level and why he continues to be superior year in, year out for the last 10, 12 years. He never lets up. He keeps breaking records, keeps scoring as many goals as the previous season. He's a beast."

One memory in particular stands out for Maso from those early years. It was a game for Barca's under-17 team against Espanyol in the 2003 final of the Catalonia Cup. Seven days earlier, Messi had fractured his cheekbone in a clash during a game. He was so desperate to play the final that he did so wearing a loose-fitting plastic face mask—which the club had made earlier in the season for a similar injury Carles Puyol suffered from a training collision with Frank de Boer.

"It showed you his competitiveness," Maso says. "Playing with a mask on in that Espanyol game wasn't common. I'd never seen it before, or I don't think I've seen it since. But that was Messi—he always showed up. He never shirks. He scored two goals in the game. He never gives a damn about anything else. All he only wants to do is play football."

---

Messi made his debut for Barcelona's first team several months later against FC Porto—when Jose Mourinho was the Portuguese club's manager—in a friendly organised to inaugurate Porto's new stadium. Jordi Gomez made his debut for Barca that night in November 2003, too, before spending several years playing in the English Premier League with Wigan Athletic and Sunderland.

Barcelona's squad was full of incredible players, including Puyol, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. (At the end of the season, Deco and Samuel Eto'o joined.) It was Ronaldinho, though, who was a class apart. The fact that Ronaldinho so visibly took the 16-year-old Messi under his wing was significant, Gomez says.

"When Messi started training with the first team, all the senior players could see that he was special," he says. "They helped him to be at his best. Ronaldinho was the star at that time. From the first moment, he took care of him. It was important for Messi that the big star of the team was on his side. Obviously Messi's quality was unbelievable, so I don't know if he needed [Ronaldinho's blessing], but it definitely helped him along.

"The thing about Messi, too, was that he played the same in training as he did in games. He had such talent. He was doing unbelievable things in training, but he made them look easy. And that's the most difficult thing—to bring those performances from training onto the pitch in big games. Some players can do it in training but can't in matches, and Messi has been doing that for years and years."

---

Ronaldinho's skill and exuberance lit up the Camp Nou during those early years of Messi's career. After years of disappointment and underachievement following the loss of Luis Figo to Real Madrid in 2000, Ronaldinho put Barca back on top and helped drive them to a UEFA Champions League title in 2005-06. Messi missed that final through injury. It wasn't long, however, before he took over Ronaldinho's role as the team's franchise player.

"The explosion of Ronaldinho changed everything in Barcelona's history," says Cristian Hidalgo, a midfielder who made his debut for Barcelona in 2006 during a Copa del Rey match. "Ronaldinho helped Barcelona to get ahead of Real Madrid.

"Messi wasn't a player who marvelled crowds like Ronaldinho—with his dribbling or his sombreros or his bicycle kicks. Messi did things that looked more simple but were very difficult to do. His ball control was amazing. He'd do nutmegs, but he didn't have to do flashy things with the ball—like Ronaldinho or other Brazilians do to hold on to the ball—because he always had the ball under control.

"The ambition Messi had was obvious. He always wanted more and more of the ball. Whether he was playing in the Camp Nou or in the second division with Barca B or with his friends on the street, he played the same way. His ambition wasn't unusual, but when you combined it with the talent he obviously had, it made him into an incredible player."

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Damia made his La Liga debut for Barca a couple of weeks after Messi's first official start for Barcelona in the league in October 2004. As a footballer who played most of his career in defence, Damia remembers it was next to impossible to stop Messi in his tracks.

"He was playing as a winger in those days," Damia says. "He was so determined to run at the defender all the time. It was so, so difficult to defend against him. When he was young, defenders tried to take the ball from him—and that was a mistake.

"What happens—and it happens when you play against other great players—is that you tend to back off and give him space. Let him play a little bit with the ball instead of lunging in and trying to steal the ball because if you dive in, almost 100 times out of 100, he will have the instinct to avoid your tackle.

"So in those early days, he had a lot of impact in those one-on-one situations because defenders all the time wanted to take the ball from him. He was still only 18 or 19 years old. Later, defenders waited more and began to stand off him.

"Lately, too, he's been going further back the pitch in the positions he takes up. He's taking advantage of this extra space in front of him because he's one of the greatest providers of assists in the game as well as an incredible scorer."

Andreu Fontas, another Barcelona defender, played alongside Messi in the final of the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup—when Barca defeated a Santos team featuring Neymar Jr. 4-0 in Japan, with Messi scoring two goals. He says that it's important to defend as a group when confronted by Messi.

"It was impossible to defend against Messi in training," Fontas says. "Imagine what you see him doing in games, what he has been doing now for so many years. In training, he did all those amazing things he does in competitive games as well. He's the best player for me in history for sure. I was very young at the time. It was a hopeless task trying to stop him.

"I tried to stay close to him and not to give him space. The greatest defenders in the world have shown that it's almost impossible to close him down. It takes more than an individual marking him. It takes a team effort. The opposition team has to have a very strong defence and a very strong defensive mentality and be ready to cover him with more than one player, but then the worry is that you're leaving Messi's teammates free to score."

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Riverola remembers what it was like to get praise from Messi when he did something well. It made him feel 10 feet tall, but he tried not to make too much of it. "You're shy," he says. "You think, Oh, thank you. That's it. You don't want to say anything more because it's Messi talking to you. You have to keep your cool and focus on the next ball."

Riverola also recalls the lash of Messi's tongue when he made a mistake. "Messi is like every player," he says. "When something doesn't work out, when you miss a chance, of course they scold you and say, 'You can do better.' Messi isn't different to any other player in that regard. He's ultracompetitive, but he's not overbearing.

"If you don't give him the ball—when he thinks you should—maybe he gets angry, but after a couple of seconds, he's back in the game and concentrating on the ball and everything is forgotten. He only wants the ball at his feet. He's like a child. When he doesn't have it, he always wants it: Give me, give me, give me. Once he has it again, there's no problem."

For several years, the media in Spain have identified "Messidependencia"—the overreliance by Barca on Messi—as a weakness. In a recent interview, Frankie de Jong, a marquee signing by the club from Ajax in the summer, acknowledged the first thing he does when he gets the ball is to look for Messi—he's so much better than everyone else on Barca's team.

"Messi intimidates some teammates, but not in the sense of, Wow, I'm playing with Messi; thinking Messi has to be involved in attacks as much as possible," Damia says. "Some players aren't suited well to Barcelona. They're not able to adapt to such a huge figure in the game. They know Messi is running toward goal to create a chance and he's the best finisher, so they tend to pass him the ball. Not because it's a rule but because he's like a magnet.

"Right throughout Messi's time at Barcelona, it's happened even with stars. You can see some average players suit the team well because they understand the role of Messi in the team, and some amazing players don't assimilate well because they can't fit their game around Messi.

"Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a great example. David Villa when he came struggled to adapt too. Eventually Villa made the jump and performed amazingly. Cristian Tello had a brilliant start at Barcelona, but he tends to go on solo runs all the time. It's the way he plays. It's not a criticism, but you could see he didn't connect with Messi. That was a problem for him to keep going at Barcelona.

"On the other hand, Jordi Alba is probably Messi's best teammate on the team now. You could find better left backs than Jordi Alba, but he's thrived at Barcelona because he's got a good connection with Messi."

   

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz.

Barcelona announced Thursday all members of its staff and player rosters, including its first-team football and basketball squads, will receive salary reductions while their leagues remain delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sport reported the news. The club also released a statement about the decision:

"Among the measures adopted, those related to the workplace are motivated by the need to adapt the club's contractual obligations with its staff to the new and temporary circumstances that we are experiencing. This involves the presentation of different cases concerning football and other professional sports, as well as for the other non-sporting personnel.

"These cases will be processed before the Government of Catalonia's Ministry of Labour, once the club has shared all aspects related to these measures, and their scope, with all its staff, both sporting and non-sporting. Basically this is a reduction of the working day, imposed by the circumstances and the protection measures carried out, and, as a consequence, the proportional reduction of the remuneration provided for in the respective contracts."

ESPN's Sam Marsden and Moises Llorens reported Wednesday the players had rejected initial proposals from the club about possible wage decreases because of COVID-19.

"Sources explained that the players are willing to take a hit to their salaries but they are not happy with the terms that have been suggested by the board so far," the ESPN report read. "There is friction between some of the players and some members of the board, which has made negotiations difficult."

Further details about Barca's financial decision weren't immediately released.

The club also announced a series of initiatives it would undertake to help spread awareness about coronavirus and helping avoid the spread of the disease.

"Start an awareness campaign, reinforcing the message '#StayAtHome,' in collaboration with the Hospital de Sant Joan de Deu, which will be broadcast on Barca TV, the club's social networks and communication channels, and which will feature boys and girls who, due to their illness, are on long-term stays at the centre. Together with doctors from various fields, they will explain their experience and encourage everyone to stay at home."

The La Liga season is delayed indefinitely, and UEFA announced the Champions League and Europa League finals have been postponed from their expected May dates.

Barcelona's players rejected the terms of a proposed wage cut amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to ESPN's Sam Marsden and Moises Llorens. 

Per that report, "Negotiations between the club's captains and the board of directors are ongoing. Sources explained that the players are willing to take a hit to their salaries but they are not happy with the terms that have been suggested by the board so far."

Any wage cut would also apply to the women's first team, the men's basketball team and other groups under the Barcelona banner. But because the men's football team accounts for half of the organization's budget, there is "a particular focus" on them, per the report.

Marsden and Llorens noted there is "friction between some of the players and some members of the board, which has made negotiations difficult," though they remain optimistic they'll be able to reach an agreement. 

Unlike many other soccer clubs around Europe, who have wealthy owners from other businesses, Barcelona's ownership group is comprised solely of its members. And the club is facing a major decrease in revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic, with no matchday or museum revenue and the uncertainty of whether certain competitions will resume, potentially costing the club additional income. 

La Liga has put its schedule on hiatus indefinitely, while UEFA postponed the Champions and Europa Leagues. It remains unclear when those competitions will resume, with the possibility of outright cancellations still potentially on the table. 

Barcelona's players have been giving back during the coronavirus crisis, however. Lionel Messi, for instance, donated €1m to aid healthcare systems in Spain and Argentina. 

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has donated 1 million euros in the fight against Covid-19. Messi's donation will be shared between two medical centres; Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and another health care facility in Argentina. #TheScoreKE pic.twitter.com/AoURqTtX6Z

— Carol Radull (@CarolRadull) March 25, 2020

Spain has been hit hard by the pandemic, with over 3,400 confirmed deaths. 

Barcelona star Lionel Messi donated €1 million to the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona to help with the coronavirus pandemic including treatment and research, according to Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo (via Goal's Sam France).  

The hospital thanked Messi on Twitter:

Leo Messi hace una donación para la lucha contra la #Covid19 en el #CLÍNIC. Muchas gracias Leo, por tu compromiso y tu apoyo. @idibaps #Covid19 #YoMeQuedoenCasa
✅https://t.co/crwjKOSBdU pic.twitter.com/P1cqEeNLgD

— Hospital Clínic (@hospitalclinic) March 24, 2020

Messi's donation comes after his former manager, Pep Guardiola, made an equal pledge to the Medical College of Barcelona and the Angel Soler Daniel Foundation. Along with managing Barcelona and playing for the club, Guardiola is a native of Santpedor, Spain in Catalonia.

While not a native of Spain, Messi has spent his formative years in the country after joining Barcelona when he was 13.

The six-time Ballon d'Or winner announced March 14 he planned to remain at home and self-quarantine during the pandemic.

A message from Lionel Messi. pic.twitter.com/hHdB43qC4u

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 14, 2020

According to CNN, doctors have confirmed at least 35,000 cases of COVID-19 in Spain, the fourth-most of any country.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Sunday he wants to extend the 15-day state of emergency in order to limit the spread of the disease.

Fernando Simon, director of the Spanish Coordinating Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, thinks the situation may improve in the coming days but said it was important not to respond too hastily.

"We are approaching the period in which perhaps, if we are lucky, we will turn the curve, stabilize and it'll start to go down," Simon said, per CNN. "The models indicate that we are not very far away, but relaxing the measures prematurely would mean starting again and we have to be very careful." 

Real Madrid were in stunning form when Barcelona came to visit the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on 23 March, 2014. They had won their previous 17 matches at the famous ground and were unbeaten in 31 games.

Barca's Andres Iniesta—who was at the height of his 16-year career with Barcelona—gave little thought to recent history, however, when he ghosted on to a through ball by Lionel Messi to smash home the game's opening goal with a little more than six minutes on the clock. It was a quintessential Iniesta goal—finding space and applying the killer finish.

"The beauty of Iniesta was that he was able to make everything look simple, and he was able to do it perfectly," says Damia, a former Barcelona teammate. "He could just turn and go, and he always did it so naturally. He didn't need to do things spectacularly. He never had to show off. He's so talented in terms of skill. He was so good at interpreting spaces and finding the gaps. His movements are classy. If he got the ball, something happened nearly all the time."

Iniesta's early strike set the tone for a pulsating match in what was the peak years of the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry. Ronaldo was the reigning Ballon d'Or holder (and later that year retained the crown). By the end of the match, a boyish-looking, clean-shaven Messi, who was still only 26, had surpassed the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano as the all-time top scorer in the history of the Clasico.

Both teams were stocked with illustrious names. The only novelty among the lineups was the decision by Real Madrid's coach Carlo Ancelotti to play Diego Lopez in goal, ahead of the club's captain, Iker Casillas. Lopez, who now plays for Espanyol, had been Real Madrid's preferred league goalkeeper that season.

"Diego Lopez arrived at Real Madrid the season before under [previous coach] Jose Mourinho," says Jaime Rodriguez, a journalist with El Mundo. "Lopez played well, and Iker was relegated to the substitutes' bench. The following season, Ancelotti made a Solomonic decision—he played Iker in the cup games and Lopez in the league games.

"It was kind of a strange decision by Ancelotti. The practice of alternating goalkeepers has become a bit more common now, but at the time the situation generated a lot of noise that wasn't good for Ancelotti, and it wasn't good for any of the goalkeepers either. Ancelotti tried to make both of them happy, or tried to be fair, but in the end neither of them were at their best level that season."

Karim Benzema—who Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano struggled to contain throughout the match—flashed in two goals midway through the first half to put Real Madrid ahead. Then a few minutes before half-time Messi pounced to square up the match again.

A trip by Dani Alves on Ronaldo (which appeared to be outside the box) led to a Real Madrid penalty 10 minutes into the second half, with Ronaldo converting it to give Real Madrid the lead again.

The game's decisive moment occurred in the 63rd minute. Messi picked up the ball close to the halfway line and threaded a pass into the path of Neymar Jr., taking out five Real Madrid defenders in one instant. 

It was a big moment for the Brazilian. His first season at Barcelona had already triggered huge institutional turmoil. Two months before the clasico, Barcelona president Sandro Rosell resigned over misappropriation of funds in Neymar Jr.'s transfer from Santos the previous summer.

There were misgivings about the impact Neymar Jr.—flamboyant, possibly unsettling for Messi—would have on Barcelona's dressing room. The club's great ideological leader, Johan Cruyff, believed he would disrupt the balance of power in the team. "Messi and Neymar? I wouldn't put two captains on the same ship," he remarked famously.

"Neymar's time at Barcelona started with performances that weren't out of the ordinary," says Jordi Quixano, a journalist with El Pais. "By the end of the season, though, he finished with good stats. Above all, he provided more important assists than great goals.

"Neymar got on well with Messi. Neymar's connection with Messi was better than, say, Antoine Griezmann's is with Messi this season. When Neymar arrived at Barcelona, he understood that his role was to serve Messi even though Messi finally took him aside one day and told him: 'Go and play. Express yourself, and stop thinking I am the best.'

"With Griezmann, it is the contrary. Griezmann is a player who has arrived and doesn't know how to adapt to the team. The team plays in a certain way, and Griezmann doesn't have the tools that Neymar had to adapt. Neymar was explosive. He could dribble. He could decide a match.

"Griezmann has always been the player on the team that other players play for, and Barca doesn't play for Griezmann. He's just another cog in the machine. Any quality player that comes and has the predisposition to play on the wing, and to play for Messi—as Neymar did back in the 2013-2014 season—will do better than Griezmann."

When Neymar Jr. got on the end of Messi's through ball, he took one touch which took him into the box. Scrambling to cover, Sergio Ramos took him down. A penalty was awarded, which was converted by Messi. It was a straight red card for Ramos—the 19th in his career.

"Real Madrid fans are more forgiving when Ramos gets a red card in a clasico," says Rodriguez. "For example, when he got sent off towards the end of the 5-0 defeat at the Camp Nou under Mourinho in 2010. That was a red card out of desperation. He could have injured Messi badly. Even Real Madrid fans forgave him for that one because there was so much tension around. And in a clasico when Messi is around anyone would get desperate."

As the game entered its final throes, a tired Real Madrid conceded another penalty when Dani Carvajal and Xabi Alonso upended Iniesta in the box after some of Iniesta's deft football. Messi scored the penalty—marking his second hat-trick in a row—to close out the game 3-4 for Barcelona.

The win meant Barca narrowed the gap to one point on joint leaders, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, at the top of the table, but their season would unravel shortly afterwards. Within a few weeks, they were dumped out of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final by Atletico and lost the final of the Copa del Rey 2-1 to Real Madrid, a final that will forever be remembered for Gareth Bale's galloping match winner.

Barcelona were in flux that season. They had just come off a 100-point league title victory, but their coach Tito Vilanova had to step down in the summer of 2013 because his condition had deteriorated following his throat cancer diagnosis. Sadly, Vilanova died in late April 2014, a little over a month after the historic 4-3 clasico. His successor Gerardo "El Tata" Martino was a poor fit and was ridiculed in the Spanish press for his shabby dress sense.

"There was a serious rumour that Messi's father advised Rosell to appoint him because he used to be his idol when Jorge Messi was young," says Quixano. "Rosell knew Martino from Rosell's years working in South America with Nike.

"Martino didn't convince the team. When he talked tactics, he knew less than the players. When a Barca player told him, 'hey, such-and-such thing is happening,' and he didn't know how to respond, the players lost confidence in him. They just went through the motions. They were like factory workers, punching in their time cards. They'd go training at the Ciudad Deportivo, do their shift, and go home again. Nothing more. The players disengaged that season under Martino."

The league title campaign went down to the wire. Real Madrid—who finished the season by winning the UEFA Champions League final in a dramatic 4-1 extra-time victory over Atletico Madrid—dropped points carelessly in the run-in to fall out of contention.

"Real Madrid played the fool for a while in April and May. Their minds were on the upcoming Champions League final because they lost a championship that they could have won by lacking focus," says Rodriguez. 

In the last league game of the season, Atletico Madrid went to the Camp Nou to face Barcelona. It was the first time since 1951 that a head-to-head decider would conclude the title race. Atletico squeezed out a 1-1 draw. Diego Godin got the all-important second-half equaliser, against an insipid Barcelona side, to secure Atletico's first title since 1996.

"Atletico had a lot of merit in winning that title—to keep pace with a Real Madrid team that ended up winning the Champions League, and against a Barcelona team that had Messi, which is always dangerous," says Rodriguez. "But in the end, Barca and Real Madrid were the ones that lost the title, more than a case of Atletico winning it.

"It was almost like Barcelona were already on holidays for that title decider against Atletico. All they had to do was win a home game against an Atletico team with their tongues hanging out—Atletico were running on fumes by that stage of the season—to become champions.

"If Barca had to play that match against Real Madrid, they would have won, but against Atletico the feeling was that they didn't even care about losing, just so long as it wasn't to Real Madrid. It surprised me a lot the attitude of Barca. It was like they thought that Atletico winning the league title was the lesser of two evils."

                  

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz