Manchester City believes they are the front of the queue to sign Lionel Messi if he leaves Barcelona this summer, claims The Sun.
Messi's future at Barcelona has been thrown into doubt after engaging in a war of words with former team-mate and current club director Eric Abidal.
The former French defender sensationally claimed some of the Barcelona players have not been trying hard enough, to which Messi took exception.
Barcelona are currently limited to just 16 fit senior first-team players and even more is now expected of Messi, who is playing through the pain barrier to make matters worse.
The current rift between Messi and the Barcelona board has led to suggestions the 32-year-old could leave the club for the first time in his career at the end of the season.
It has sensationally emerged Messi has a clause in his current contract that effectively means he can leave Barcelona for nothing if he chooses.
Barcelona have included similar clauses of good faith to ex players like Andreas Iniesta, Xavi and Carlos Puyol but it could leave them seriously red faced this summer.
City chiefs Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, both of whom were previously at Barcelona, believe the club is well placed to prise Messi to the Etihad if he leaves the Spanish outfit.
Pep Guardiola is also the ultimate trump card for City's chances of signing Messi duo to their close relationship in the past.
However, even if Messi leaves Barcelona and wants to join City the Premier League outfit would still need to find a way to finance a deal.
Even though there would be no transfer fee involved, wages would remain a massive sticking point.
Messi is understood to be earning nearly £1M-a-week at Barcelona and such a deal would be unlike anything the Premier League has ever seen.
For context, Alexis Sanchez reportedly secured wages around £500,000-a-week when he joined Manchester United in January 2018 and that remains a record in the division.
Messi has struggled with a thigh injury for most of the season but the veteran has still managed to play a direct hand in 22 goals in 17 league games this season (14 goals, eight assists).
The Barcelona No.10 has won the WhoScored Man of the Match award more times than any other player in Europe's top 5 leagues this season (9).
Furthermore, only Neymar (8.66) has garnered a higher WhoScored rating than Messi (8.59) in Europe's top five leagues this term.
Not a chance in hell will Braveheart ever leave Barca. City won't be built around him and the EPL is too tough.
@tinyclaw No, it's the usual, Messi is kicking up a fuss so Barca offer him a bigger wage. Probably.