Messi Tells Koeman He Sees Future away from Barca

Lionel Messi reportedly informed new Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman that he has doubts about his future at Camp Nou.

The Argentinian was devastated after his team's elimination of the Champions League from Bayern Munich and their 8-2 thrashing at the hands of the Bavarians, which led to speculation about his future, reports Marca English.

For the immediate future, according to RAC1, Messi considers himself more outside than inside Barcelona, but he is mindful that it would be impossible to leave the team as he already has another year remaining on his deal.

The captain of Barcelona broke off his holidays to head back to Catalonia to consult with Koeman to plan the team's next season project.

Messi will be the core of the Dutchman's squad in 2020/21, although he has made it clear that he does not want stars who are not dedicated to the cause.

At the moment, the only goal of Barcelona is to persuade Messi to stay on the team, because Josep Maria Bartomeu would not want to go down in history as the president who let go of the biggest football player in history.

Unfortunately for Bartomeu, it seems that Argentina is closer to leaving Camp Nou than ever before.

Barcelona has known Messi's place for a few days now, but they had hoped that Koeman's talk would change things around.

Tied down

In view of the fact that he still had one year left on his deal, Messi could not leave Barcelona without the club agreeing to move.

The release clause in the forward contract remains EUR 700 million, and while clubs like Inter are interested in signing it, they will not pay for this kind of money.

However, Inter themselves are convinced they can put together an offer to persuade Barcelona to sell, which would probably include their own players.

This changes everything

Messi's decision to make a transfer will have a huge effect on the Barcelona project for the coming season and on those that follow it.

The club will urgently start preparing for existence without their talisman in the event that they wind up leaving this summer.

If Messi is sold at a large price, this money may be used to finance a push for another top player to take his spot.

The trouble for Barcelona is that there aren't many stars out there, if any, including Lionel Messi.