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It's official - Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona!

The Spanish club made the announcement on Thursday evening in a move that shocked the world of football.

The 34-year-old was due to sign a new deal to extend his 21-year stay at the club for another five years. This included reducing his wages to half of his previous salary.

Barcelona needed to sell players to fund the deal in order to meet La Liga's Financial Fair Play (FFP) requirements. The 'financial fair play' rule was brought in by Uefa (the organisation in charge of European football), to stop clubs spending more money than they can afford which can put them in lots of debt and lead to bigger issues in the long-run.

However, the club is still yet to sell any of its players and it wasn't able to come up with an alternative way to pay Messi's wages.

"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."

We now know that Messi could soon be signed by another club. But the big question is - where would YOU like to see Messi play for next season? Have your say by voting below, or leave us a comment if your team isn't on the list!

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