![Club: Messi to Leave Barcelona Due to Financial Constraint](https://im-media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/reuters-images/2021/08/reuters_com_2021_newsml_RC26HN9N5V3D.jpg)
Club: Messi to Leave Barcelona Due to Financial Constraint
Voice of America
MADRID - Argentina striker Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona despite both parties having reached an agreement over a new contract, the La Liga club said on Thursday, citing economic and structural obstacles to the renewal of deal.
"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles (Spanish La Liga regulations)," Barca said in a statement. "As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled. "FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandizement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life."![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240604134845.jpg)
In this image provided by Giant Screen Films, Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher pose for a celebratory photo on the day their fossil find was determined to be a juvenile T. rex, in North Dakota. In this photo provided by Giant Screen Films, Jessin Fisher digs for fossils on public lands near his home in Marmath, N.D. (Sam Fisher/Giant Screen Films via AP) The Hell Creek badlands of southwestern North Dakota, U.S., where a fossil of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered, is seen in this July 2016 handout photo. (Erik Freeman/Handout via Reuters)
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240603142120.jpg)
This image released by Sony Pictures shows characters Jon, voiced by Nicholas Hoult, clockwise from left, Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from the animated film "The Garfield Movie." This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240603045646.jpg)
Engineer Guillermo D. Christy photographs a steel pillar filled with concrete that was installed inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system to support the Maya Train track on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A passenger looks at the passing jungle landscape while traveling on the Maya Train from Cancun to Valladolid, Mexico, March 6, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. A line of the Mayan Train is built using material dug out from the nearby tropical forest near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 1, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. Workers build a Maya Train railway track near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 10, 2024. Engineer Guillermo D. Christy shows his hand stained with rust after touching a steel pillar in the Aktun Tuyul cave system. Construction of the Maya Train is rapidly destroying much of the hidden underground world of caverns and sinkhole lakes. A Mayan Train worker waits for passengers to board in Cancun, Mexico, March 6, 2024. ight shines through a hole made by massive metal drills to introduce a steel pillar filled with concrete that will be used to support a part of the Maya Train track, inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A hat sits on a Maya Train passenger seat en route to Valladolid, Mexico, Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240602174843.jpg)
A thermometer showing 29° C (84.2° F), is seen hanging from a wall in the shadow, during the first heat alert of the year, on a hot spring day, in a street in Ronda, Spain, May 30, 2024. A man carries a child with its head covered with a towel to protect it from the heat in Jammu, India, June 2, 2024. A street is flooded by the river Schmutter, following heavy rainfalls in Fischach, near Augsburg, Germany, June 1, 2024.