Lionel Messi wants meeting with Barcelona as he looks to negotiate an amicable exit from the club

Lionel Messi has asked his representatives to set up a meeting with the Barcelona board so that an amicable agreement can be reached over his future.

It would be the first time the two sides have come together since Messi’s bombshell burofax was sent to the club on Tuesday informing them that he wanted to leave on a free-transfer.

Sources close to the player at El Periodico reported the imminent meeting, instigated by Messi who has no intention of entering into a war with president Bartomeu or entertaining his proposal that Messi request that he stand down.

Lionel Messi is keen to discuss an amicable way of leaving Barcelona this summer window

Josep Bartomeu reportedly offered to step down in a bid to keep Messi at the Nou Camp

Messi knows such a move will merely play into the hands of those at the club trying to portray him as the source of all the current discord.

It’s not clear if the meeting will be via videoconference or face to face with Messi’s father Jorge flying into Barcelona from Rosario in Argentina. Messi is not expected to speak publicly before the meeting has taken place.

It looks increasingly as if only a process of negotiation between Messi, Barcelona, and Manchester City will resolve the current stalemate.

Messi still has an affection for the club and wants to avoid a war with them as he looks to leave

Barcelona are insisting the player’s contract does not make him a free agent because the deadline passed in June for him to tell the club he wanted to leave this year.

The spirit of the law might give Messi room to argue that the season was extended therefore extending his window of opportunity to terminate his contract, but the ‘spirit of the law’ would not win in court.

Manchester City certainly have no interest in taking Messi on a free courtesy of a provisional International Transfer Certificate from FIFA, only to then have to sweat on a judge’s verdict on the player’s Barcelona contract. The club want his situation cleared up first.

Messi believes after 20 years service to Barcelona he deserves to go on his terms as he would have been allowed to do had he exercised that right at the start of June.