Messi joins Ronaldo, Neymar in sensational transfer sagas as icon's Barcelona exit looms

Barcelona icon Lionel Messi seeks an exit from club with his far Jorge set to meet president Josep Maria Bartomeu on Wednesday. With Messi unwilling to attend Barcelona training sessions, Argentine has joined list of several top stars, including Cristia Ronaldo and Neymar to have been involved in nerve-wracking transfer sagas. 

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Messi forces move away from Barcelona 

Messi believes that he could leave club for free facilitated by a special clause in his contract that was inserted in 2017. However, Barcelona maintain that interested parties should pay €700 million ($839 million), which is his estimated release clause, in full.

With LaLiga extending its complete support to Barcelona, Messi looks to seek an amicable settlement and secure a respectable exit. Messi is set to ply his trade at Manchester City, due to presence of Pep Guardiola. However, re's still more to Messi transfer saga as things will unfold in coming days. Here are some or transfers that created tremendous controversy back in its day featuring top football stars -

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Neymar's forced move to PSG (2017)

Neymar had seen magnificent success that Messi had achieved with Barcelona, with five Ballon d'Or awards in his bag back n. Determined to achieve similar success, Brazilian began reconsidering his future with Catalan giants and as a result, Neymar transfer talks began doing rounds.

Amid chaos, much like Messi at moment, Neymar refused to attend Barcelona training so that club would be forced to transder him. Ultimately, Neymar transfer to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was sealed for a world record fee of €222 million ($263 million). Among or things, Neymar aims to win Champions League title with PSG and make history with Parisians, which he narrowly missed out this season after Bayern Munich's win in final.

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Cristia Ronaldo's world record transfer to Real Madrid (2009)

Cristia Ronaldo secured a n-world record transfer, estimated at £80 million ($106 million) to Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2009 having achieved immense success with Manchester United. Manr Sir Alex Ferguson denied Ronaldo's move to Bernabeu until anuncement was made official by two clubs.

In fact, he proclaimed that Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid would be worst thing possible for his career. He, instead, wanted Ronaldo to join Barcelona, who were emerging as a dominant force in Europe. Still, Real Madrid succeeded in signing Portuguese forward in 2009, who went on to become club's all-time top scorer during his nine-season stay. 

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Antoine Griezmann's clumsy move to Barcelona (2019)

After a prolific run of form with  France national team during ir title triumph in 2018 World Cup, Antoine Griezmann was highly linked with a move to Barcelona. However, striker made a mockery of transfer rumours as he produced a documentary named ' Decision' to confirm that he was staying with Atletico Madrid. But he could t deny Barcelona a year later and ultimately moved to Camp u for a reported fee of €120 million ($142 million). 

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Wayne Rooney's 'surprise' transfer talks

Having seen departure of Cristia Ronaldo in 2009, midfielder Wayne Rooney looked to follow his footsteps. England legend, in 2010, had openly made clear his intentions of leaving Old Trafford outfit. His open proclamation left Sir Alex Ferguson surprised. However, within 48 hours of talks, club's all-time top scorer penned down a five-year deal with Red Devils. 

Im courtesy: Cristia Ronaldo/Neymar Twitter/Leo Messi Instagram