Barcelona will refer Lionel Messi to his €700million (£631m) release clause if the Barcelona star formally asks to leave the club, reports say.
Messi is weighing up his options after another desperately disappointing season for Barcelona which ended in a humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Barcelona sacked Quique Setien but have already replaced him with Ronald Koeman, who is planning a big clear-out of players.
Koeman has met with Messi, who refused to give the new Barcelona head coach assurances about staying at the club.
Mundo Deportivo claim the Barcelona board are not yet entertaining the idea of Messi departing the club in the current transfer window.
The board, headed by under-fire president Josep Bartomeu, already have a response ready for Messi if he makes a request to leave.
Messi has an incredible £631m buy-out clause, a figure very few clubs in world football would have the means to trigger.
Barcelona will refer Messi to his release clause, not to frustrate the Argentina international, but to communicate to him he is unsellable.
Messi may be fuming with the club’s fortunes but Barcelona chiefs consider the superstar as their main asset both on and off the pitch.
Koeman has made it clear he wants Messi to stay and said the club must meet his ambitions.
‘Messi is a pure winner,’ Koeman told Dutch media outlet NOS.
‘I am very close with Pep Guardiola and I am still in contact with him now.
‘Pep told me that Messi wants to win, he wants to win everything. And if he doesn’t win, he can get very annoyed. I am looking so much forward to work with him.
‘I have to make sure that Messi will be able to function well in this team, and that he feels important. He is the captain of this club.
‘He has to finish his career here. Messi is Barcelona and Barcelona is Messi.’
