Lionel Messi is reportedly learning French amid heavy interest in the Barcelona superstar from Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi, 33, is out of contract this summer and PSG have made no secret of their desire to lure the Argentine to Parc des Princes.
Little progress has been made regarding a contract extension with Barcelona and the uncertainty over their captain's future could hardly come at a worse time for the Catalans.
Barca shed light on the full extent of their debt as they released their financial statements earlier this week.
A report by Spanish newspaper El Mundo broke down the numbers and found Barcelona owe banks £240million by the end of June.
The scale of the Camp Nou club's debt stands at over £1billion, though a new Deloitte study finds Barcelona still have the largest revenues of any side in world football.
Nonetheless, reports from Spain claim Barcelona's players were not paid in December and the chances of them being able to make moves in the summer transfer window look increasingly unlikely.
This also means Barca may struggle to table a new contract to keep Messi, already their biggest earner, beyond the summer.
Messi is yet to confirm whether he will stay with the La Liga giants or search for a new challenge, but Canal+ reports the player and his family are learning French.
His links with PSG have only intensified during recent weeks following the appointment of his compatriot Mauricio Pochettino as manager.
Meanwhile, PSG sporting director Leonardo admitted he is "closely following" developments on Messi's situation.
But Barca boss Ronald Koeman played down rumours of panic at Camp Nou following the release of the financial statements.
“All teams suffer economically from the impacts of Covid," he said. "Barca also suffers from the lack of tourism.
"All clubs can get quite bad numbers at the moment due to this. It is not only here. From what I have seen, the players are not impacted by this."
Should Lionel Messi join PSG this summer? Have your say in the comments.
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
