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Messi to stay put at Barcelona, according to TyC Sports

(Update: adds info that Messi will stay)

Barcelona, Sep 4 (efe-epa).- Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona next season, Argentinean news outlet TyC Sports reported on Friday.

The news was reported after a meeting between his father Jorge Messi, who acts as his representative, and club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The 33-year-old Argentinean striker has opted to stay put for another season to complete the final year of his contract with the Spanish side, according to TyC Sports.

It came after a fraught stand-off which saw Jorge Messi pen a statement to LaLiga claiming that the 700-million-euro buyout clause both the club and the league said must be honored did not exist.

LaLiga responded with its own statement saying Messi’s team had misinterpreted the contract and taken it out of context.

The hotly anticipated statement from Jorge Messi, who arrived in Barcelona this week, was the latest in a tug-of-war between his star striker son and the Catalan giants.

Messi notified Barcelona of his intention to leave the club at the end of last month, saying he wanted to trigger a clause in his contract that allows him to leave on a free at the end of each season.

Barcelona said the clause had expired for the year and was backed by LaLiga’s top brass, meaning the Argentine could stay at the club for at least another year.

In his statement to LaLiga president Javier Tebas on Friday, Jorge Messi said: “First, we do not know what contract you have analyzed and one what basis you conclude that there is a buyout clause applicable in the case of him deciding to unilaterally end his contract from the end of the 2019-20 season.”

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