Lionel Messi is worth €580 euros says Barcelona president Sandro Rosell.
Rosell told reporters that he had no interest in moving his top player and set his price at an astronomical fee.
"[A buying club] would have to give Messi €250 million to pay the LFP clause; then they'd have to pay more than 56 percent in taxes. This would be about €580 million," he asserted.
While a transfer is unlikely, Messi has seemingly been considered as a potential target.
Sportive23.net recently tweeted that "Messi turned down a blockbusting move to an unknown Russian club thought to be Anzhi after a bid of £205m triggered his release clause"
The report indicates that "Messi's €250 million release clause has actually been triggered at least once [in December 2012], and while the interested club was never identified by either the player or Barcelona, it was widely assumed to have been Russia's Anzhi Makhachkala [via The Independent]."
That team was supposedly offering the four-time Ballon d'Or winner an astronomical €530,000 per week on top of paying the buyout clause fee but was promptly rejected.
Paris Saint-Germain president Sheikh Nasser Al-Khelaifi also recently threatened to pay the buyout clause for Messi.
"If Barca pay the buy-out clause of Thiago Silva then I will meet Messi's buy-out clause," he stated.
The speculation over a Messi transfer started when legend Johan Cruyuff said that a Messi-Neymar partnership would never materialize at Barcelona. He suggested that the 25-year-old superstar be moved to make room for Neymar.
"[Neymar] is talented but we'll have to see how he gets on with everyone. That's a problem," he said. "With Neymar on board, I would have planned for the possibility of selling Messi, and some would agree with that, others not. You are talking about a team, its players, the things around it... There are too many things at stake. That's why it's so difficult to manage such a top class squad."
Neymar and Messi have reportedly expressed an interest in working together.
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