Barcelona legend tips Lionel Messi to sign a new two-year contract at the club

Despite all of the upheaval at the club over the last few weeks, one Barcelona legend believes that there’s every chance Lionel Messi will sign a two-year extension at the club.

Rivaldo, writing in his column for Betfair, suggested that there was still a lot of things that could happen between now and the end of the 2020/21 campaign that could influence the Argentinian.

Though Arturo Vidal and Luis Suarez being moved on certainly won’t have helped matters, given how close Messi was to both, particularly Suarez, Rivaldo remains optimistic.

“I still think that a lot could happen to prevent his exit,” he said.

“He’ll make new friends in the locker-room and we cannot forget that there will be elections in 2021 that could change the current situation.

“We don’t know how things have evolved between Messi and the current president, so let’s wait and hope that he changes his mind and ends up extending his contract for two more seasons.”

Perhaps the major stumbling block is Josep Maria Bartomeu, the current Barcelona president.

It’s clear that any resentment Messi and his team-mates felt towards him, and which had been bubbling under for months, maybe years, has now come to the surface.

Suarez’s goodbye, for which Messi took to Instagram to criticise the club about, was a prime example of the Argentinian no longer willing to keep his mouth shut.

If the current vote of no confidence in Bartomeu is successful, then he will be gone in a few weeks, and that could, ultimately, ensure Messi stays.

Any other outcome, and the exit door creaks further ajar.

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