Lionel Messi Could Potentially Miss The First Clasico Match Of The Season

Forum 3 years ago

Lionel Messi Could Potentially Miss The First Clasico Match Of The Season

At the moment, the Clasico is pencilled in for 25 October, but the Argentine may be in quarantine in that period if he is selected for international duty.

In the weeks before that fixture, Argentina have World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador on 8 October and Bolivia on 13 October.

Should Messi leave Spain to play in those matches, under current Spanish regulations he would be required to quarantine for 14 days when he returns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Only a few weeks ago Messi requested that his contract be terminated, allowing him to leave the Blaugrana for free having played in Catalunya since the age of 13.

He would eventually perform a u-turn and announce his intention to stay for at least another year, but only to avoid a legal dispute with the club.

Messi’s patience had been becoming more tested over the course of the campaign, and things came to a head after Barcelona were embarrassed 8-2 in the Champions League by Bayern.

Quique Setien was sacked and replaced by Ronald Koeman after that result.