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Barcelona's shock announcement that Lionel Messi will be leaving the club this summer has bizarrely been met by radio silence from the rest of the squad on social media.
The Catalan club sent shockwaves around the footballing world on Thursday evening when they confirmed Messi – who became a free agent last month – would not be re-signing at the Nou Camp despite the club claiming a long-term deal, albeit on lower pay terms, had been agreed.
The forward was prepared to take a 50 per cent pay deduction from his previous deal - which was worth more than £425million over four years - to adhere to LaLiga's financial fair play rules.
Barcelona made the shock announcement that Lionel Messi will leave the club this summer
However, his shock departure has been bizarrely met by radio silence from his team-mates
Barcelona announced the end of Lionel Messi's 18 year stay at the club with a four paragraph statement
This would have seen Messi's earnings slashed by £250,000-a-week on the proposed new five-year contract. However, the 34-year-old was said to be happy to take the hit if it meant he was able to re-register as a Barcelona player with LaLiga.
In an official statement on the club's website, Barcelona claimed that Messi would not be extending his stay due to economic and structural obstacles (Spanish LaLiga regulations).
Barcelona followed this announcement up with a seven-minute tribute video on their social media pages, where they emotionally paid homage to arguably the game's greatest ever player.
However, there are still claims that Messi's exit isn't completely definite and
