After playing for Barcelona throughout his career, there have been transfer rumours about Lionel Messi seeking a new challenge. This has also been due to the rise in the number of clubs able to spend extravagant sums of money. Taking Messi away from Barcelona will not be easy since the striker will cost easily in excess of £ 150 million, which would be a new world record. His contract reportedly has a release clause of £ 250 million. Despite the extravagant sums of money involved, Inter Milan president Erick Thohir says that signing Messi is not an impossible task.
He was recently appointed as the president of the club to succeed Massimo Moratti after the latter sold the club. There were severe financial constraints during the latter years of Moratti, but that has now been removed following the arrival of the new owners. They have promised huge transfer funds in the summer, while the talk of even signing a star name like Messi does not appear to go away. Inter Milan have been struggling to sustain their form even after the arrival of Walter Mazzarri as the new manager in the summer. The former Napoli man has been able to get the team only to fifth in the table after New Year.
They are 10 points behind the final Champions League qualifying spot.
“Players like Messi can be bought. But only on the condition that the club’s finances are not affected. In January, though, it will be difficult to recruit new players because the window is so narrow and there’s only half a season left to play,” said the new Inter Milan president.
Despite the troubles on the pitch, they are not expected to spend substantial amounts of money this January. Mazzarri is expected to be handed a war chest in the summer to improve the team.