Lionel Messi is set to leave Barcelona after 21 years and a whopping 672 goals in 778 appearances since his senior debut in 2003.
The legendary player has been forced to leave the club after the La Liga giants were unable to fulfil his new contract.
The six-time Ballon d'Or winner did not agree on terms of a renewal before his previous Barcelona contract ran out on June 30 and has been a free agent since July 1.
Messi arrived in Barcelona early last week expecting to sign a new five-year contract with the club, which would have seen a 50 per cent reduction in his salary.
The 34-year-old was prepared to have his salary reduced from about €118m to around €58m.
The club has now said they are facing "financial and structural obstacles", blaming La Liga rules and their previous ownership.
At a press conference on Friday, President Joan Laporta said: “We were all thinking for two years, but if he wanted more, we could negotiate.
“But two years at Barca is what we all wanted. We wanted the post-Messi era to start in two years. We had to bring that forward."
Laporta had agreed terms for a new contract with Messi staying true to his promise before becoming president that he would keep Messi at the club.
However, the numbers involved would have led to the club breaking La Liga’s Financial Fair Play rules that were agreed to in 2011.
Barcelona has struggled with reducing its wage bill to adhere to the Fair Play rules for this coming season.
They have already been in talks with vice-captains Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto about reducing their salaries by 40 per cent.
Barcelona has also attempted to sell several high earners such as Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti and Martin Braithwaite.
Unfortunately, they have not yet been able to resolve these issues, and even free agent arrivals have been given big contracts and signing-on fees.
La Liga will only allow the club to spend 70 per cent of turnover on their wage bill.
Laporta said on Friday that Messi’s new contract would have resulted in the club spending 110 per cent.
However, the departure of Messi from the club will not be the end of Barcelona’s problems as the wage bill will remain at 95 per cent of turnover even with him gone.
Messi is said to have been blindsided by the collapse of his contract with Barcelona, but it has been reported that Paris Saint-Germain is already in talks with the football star about bringing him to France.
