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

Barcelona icon Lionel Messi seeks an exit from the club with his father Jorge set to meet president Josep Maria Bartomeu on Wednesday. With Messi unwilling to attend the Barcelona training sessions, the Argentine has joined the list of several top stars, including Cristiano 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 the 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 the presence of Pep Guardiola. However, there's still more to the Messi transfer saga as things will unfold in the coming days. Here are some other 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 the magnificent success that Messi had achieved with Barcelona, with five Ballon d'Or awards in his bag back then. Determined to achieve similar success, the Brazilian began reconsidering his future with the Catalan giants and as a result, Neymar transfer talks began doing the rounds.

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

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

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

In fact, he proclaimed that Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid would be the 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 the Portuguese forward in 2009, who went on to become the 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 the France national team during their title triumph in the 2018 World Cup, Antoine Griezmann was highly linked with a move to Barcelona. However, the striker made a mockery of the transfer rumours as he produced a documentary named 'The Decision' to confirm that he was staying with Atletico Madrid. But he could not deny Barcelona a year later and ultimately moved to the Camp Nou for a reported fee of €120 million ($142 million). 

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Wayne Rooney's 'surprise' transfer talks

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

Image courtesy: Cristiano Ronaldo/Neymar Twitter/Leo Messi Instagram