Messi Wants To Stay With Argentina - Batista

Sergio Batista is hoping to be able to hold on to the 21-year-old after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went against FIFA's decision that club's were obliged to send their Under-23 players to the event.

Instead, CAS stated that it was down to the club's to decide and Barça had been adamant that they wanted Messi available to them for the first leg of the Champions League qualifiers next week.

Despite that, Batista now insists that after arriving in China and training with the national team, Messi has confided in him that he wants to remain in Beijing.

"Messi has told me that he wants to stay with the national squad," the trainer told reporters in China.

"I do not want to go into the legal side of all this, but I do know that he will be playing with us for the entire championship."

Barcelona are in the United States preparing for their second game before returning home and must decide whether to force Messi to return to Catalunya.

Having been intent on ensuring that they were not obliged to let him play, there have been signs of a thaw in recent days with coach Pep Guardiola stating that he wanted to keep the player happy.

Technical secretary Txiki Begiristain will hold talks with president Joan Laporta to discuss the next move, but after all the uproar Barça could no relent on insisting he plays for them this month.

Lucas Brown, Goal.com