LIONEL MESSI THE KING OF BARCA

Maestro wins power struggle with Bartomeu...will it spark Barcelona to life?

LIONEL MESSI has won his power struggle at Barcelona after club president Josep Maria Bartomeu quit the Nou Camp last night.

But the Argentina ace will have to wait for his superstar clash with Cristiano Ronaldo – as the Juventus forward has failed another Covid-19 test and will miss tonight’s Champions League meeting.

Messi, 33, will now hope to renew his rivalry with Ronaldo, 35 – who he has shared 11 of the past 12 Ballon d’or awards with – on December 8 in the return match at the Nou Camp.

Bartomeu’s decision comes after an almighty fallout with Messi in the summer, during which the player demanded to leave the club.

But Bartomeu dug his heels in and a l t h o u g h Me s s i ultimately backed down on his demand to go – meaning a potential move to Manchester City fell through – the bad blood did not end there.

Insisting he only stayed with the Catalan giants to avoid a legal battle with his boyhood club,

Messi accused Bartomeu (right) of not keeping his word by denying him the chance to leave for nothing at the end of last season.

Bartomeu has now chosen to fall on his sword rather than face a vote of no confidence from the fans.

The rest of the board of directors at the Nou Camp have also stepped down and an election to appoint a new president will be held in the next

90 days.

Bartomeu, 57, replaced Sandro

Rossell as president in 2014 and the club went on to win the Treble under then manager Luis Enrique. But last season saw Barcelona fail to win a trophy for the first time since the 2007-08 season. And Messi was not the only high-profile player to take issue with Bartomeu’s regime, as Gerard Pique was also critical of the club’s power brokers.

The Spain defender blasted the club last week for the treatment of Messi – and the revelations that Barcelona had paid a PR company to discredit players during the summer row over salary reductions.

Pique said: “Messi deserves everything – the new stadium should be named after him first and then the sponsor. We should preserve our figureheads, not under-appreciate them. It really gets to me.”

Barcelona have made a miserable start to the season and are way down in 12th place in La Liga after three matches without a win.

And they suf fered the embarrassment of a 3-1 home defeat to rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico at the weekend – wh ich increased the pressure on Bartomeu.

And off the pitch the results were just as damaging for Bartomeu, with the coronavirus pandemic contributing heavily to Barcelona posting l osses of £88million.

Fo r Me s s i , this t e r m’s Champions L ea gu e looks increasingly like his last dance.

But, for once, the five-time winners are not among the favourites.

After the 8-2 Champions League humiliation against Bayern Munich, in Lisbon, in August, Messi (left) demanded to leave. That plea was rejected unless a buyer stumped up his £630m buy-out fee, and not even City were going to do that to bring him to England.

He reluctantly agreed to stay and see out the final year of his contract with the promise that a new team would be built around him.

However, Barca’s poor start to the season is not delivering the new beginning he hoped for.