Messi stalling on new Barca deal
LIONEL MESSI has put his Barcelona contract talks on hold indefinitely because of the club’s problems on and off the field.
Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao yesterday to take another step towards the title and Messi, still furious at various off-field controversies this season, has no intention of putting pen to paper on a new deal while president Josep Bartomeu remains at the club.
Messi’s deal runs until next summer when Bartomeu’s term ends and Messi, who will then be 34, is still likely to stay, with a new president.
The failure to re- sign his friend Neymar last summer; the scandal of a firm employed by Barcelona being linked to online accounts that ran negative stories about him and his family; and an attempt by sporting director Eric Abidal to blame Messi for the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde in January have all irked the club’s greatest ever player.
Barcelona’s misery is compounded by Madrid’s march to the title.
Real captain Sergio Ramos’s fifth goal since the season restarted was the difference in the 1-0 win over Bilbao yesterday.
It was Ramos’s 22nd straight penalty conversion, although as ever with the 34-year-old there was controversy — the 70th-minute spot-kick was awarded after Marcelo had been stepped on by Dani Garcia. But five minutes later Ramos trod on the foot of Raul Garcia, also in the area, and nothing was given.
‘I stepped on him a bit,’ admitted Ramos afterwards, ‘ but it was unintentional.’
Ramos was booked late on and now misses Madrid’s next game. They will miss him — his goals are dragging them to the title.
Former Chelsea star Eden Hazard missed his second consecutive game because of pain in the right ankle he needed surgery on earlier this year.
Hazard was kicked in a Champions League game against Paris SaintGermain in November and that kept him out for almost three months.
He returned in February but was sidelined again soon after, and needed an operation on the ankle in March.
The Belgian has one goal for Madrid in 13 starts, but on Madrid’s form, how much they will need him to confirm themselves as champions for a 34th time is debatable.