Manchester City is ready to prepare a huge bid to sign Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona. The Citizens would like to reunite the Argentinian magician with Pep Guardiola. The reports in England say that the negotiations between City and Barca were held at the end of the last month to figure out if this transfer is possible, but the Citizens didn’t make a formal bid for one of the best footballers in the history.
The executives at the club made it clear, that they are ready to top the global transfer record of £89m, the amount that Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba in the previous summer transfer window.
The biggest transfer in the world
Is this transfer even possible? FC Barcelona haven’t named a price for 30-year old Lionel Messi and they even didn’t confirm if they will sell the five-time World Player of the Year. However, they are keen to listen offers from the Citizens, what has encouraged the directors from Etihad to do their best to bring Messi to the Premier League.
Manchester City is currently at the 5th position in the league table, with them being just ten points behind Chelsea.
The clubs like Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal are also higher in the table than Pep Guardiola’s side. The Citizens have lost two of their last three games, including demolishing 4-0 defeat to Everton.
Could Messi reunite with Guardiola?
However, the Citizens believe that Pep Guardiola can make them one of the best clubs in the Europe, but he needs some more time and money to bring the best players to the Etihad Stadium. They hope that the special connection between Guardiola and Messi can help to convince Leo Messi to sign a contract with Manchester City.
FC Barcelona offered huge new deals to Luis Suarez and Neymar recently, but they can’t afford the contract that Messi wants. Oscar Grau, the CEO at the Camp Nou said: ‘We need to be very strict with our money, we can’t go crazy and offer big contracts to every player at the club. Lionel is our club legend and we will do everything to keep him here.’