Manchester City are ready to make an astonishing offer of £164 million pounds to Barcelona for the services of superstar, Lionel Messi.
Various reports in Spain suggest that Manchester City boss, Manuel Pellegrini, has begun preparations to bring the four time Ballon d’Or winner to the Etihad next season.
City Owner, Sheikh Mansour, has been keeping tabs on Messi ever since he took over the club in 2008, with Mansour said to be a huge fan of the Argentinian icon. Mansour believes that the time is right for Manchester City to have a player of Messi’s calibre at the club.
Messi has scored 40 times in 43 games for Barcelona, but has suffered a number of injuries and has ocasionally been unable to find the form that has previously won the player 4 Ballon d’Or’s. Reports suggest that Messi is stalling on a new contract at the spanish club, hoping that a move to one of Europe’s emerging giants can happen in the near future.
PSG are another club that have also been linked with Messi repeatedly, but City believe their former Barcelona duo Txiki Beguiristain and Ferran Soriano will be able to convice the player to join fellow countryman, Sergio Aguero, at the club.
Barcelona could be tempted to cash in on the player, after major rebuilding needs to be done as the age of the Spanish club increases.
By Ollie Brown
