Barcelona fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the club's most valuable player - Lionel Messi - is all set to put pen to paper on a bumper new deal that will see the Argentine getting tied down till 2022.
With just 18 months to go on his current contract, there was some uneasiness around the Camp Nou as speculations were rife of the impending departure of the five-time Ballon D’OR winner on free transfer at the end of 2018 season.
A reunion with former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola at Manchester City wasn't being ruled out, as according to reports, Messi had declined to sign a new deal in July 2016 and 'wanted to keep his options open’.
But Messi’s father has calmed those fears by revealing that everything is going as per plans and Messi will stay at Barcelona for a long time.
Barcelona is expected to make Messi the highest paid player in Europe with a reported annual salary of around 30 million pounds.
It’s a last ditch effort by the Catalan giants to appease Messi after their directors made controversial statements regarding Leo and created headlines for all the wrong reasons.
"Messi would not be as good without Iniesta, Neymar and co," Director Pere Gratacos was quoted as saying by the Spanish website Sport. He was relieved of his duties the next day by the Camp Nou outfit ‘for having publicly expressed a personal opinion that does not match that of the club’.
Both Luiz Suarez and Luis Enrique had hit out at the statement and the entire saga revealed the increasing gap between the club’s dressing room and the board room.
“With Messi what you have to do is give him a new contract, not have common sense," Suarez told reporters after their win over Athletic Bilbao.