Revealed: Lionel Messi offered himself to Man City & met with Pep Guardiola in Barcelona after handing in shock transfer request at Camp Nou in 2020

Messi memorably sent the term 'burofax' trending across the planet and triggered an institutional crisis at Barcelona when he demanded to rescind his contract. According to Marti Perarnau's new book, God Save Pep, Messi's interest in joining City was relayed via a WhatsApp message from Sergio Aguero saying that his international team-mate had enquired how long Guardiola remained under contract for. There was then a direct exchange between Messi and Guardiola which led to a meeting at Guardiola's home in Barcelona.

The pair are said to have had a frank exchange with Guardiola impressing on his former player how hard the training regime was in Manchester and warning his former protégé about the city's notoriously rainy climate. According to Perarnau, Messi remained adamant that he wanted to leave.

Ultimately, the conversation proved to be academic, with Messi unable to legally extract himself from his contract having made the request behind the stipulated deadline. Barcelona stood firm behind the player's €700m (£605m/$767m) release clause.

Messi eventually agreed to stay for the final year of his contract, announcing his decision in an exclusive interview with GOAL. A year later, Messi's contract expired with the club hamstrung by La Liga's financial fair play rules and unable to offer new terms. However, it was Paris Saint-Germain and not City who were able to strike a deal with the player.

The author of the new revelations Marti Perarnau, has previously been given unprecedented access to Guardiola. For his 2014 book, Pep Confidential, the writer spent an entire season shadowing Guardiola at Bayern Munich.

With MLS currently on its winter break and no internationals scheduled until next year, Messi has some rare time to put his feet up and maybe even read Perarnau’s new book.