The footballing world is waking up to the shocking realisation Lionel Messi is to part ways with Barcelona after 21 years at the club, but attention has already turned to his next destination.
The 34-year-old Argentine has been a free agent since July 1, but it was expected he would renew his contract at the Nou Camp following months of protracted negotiations.
It was thought Messi would sign a new deal until 2026 that included reducing his wages to half his previous salary. The arrangement collapsed, however, due to "financial and structural obstacles", with Sky in Italy reporting PSG hope to convince Messi to move to Paris instead.
With Barcelona's statement on Thursday night unequivocal and the seven-minute montage that paid tribute to one of their greatest players appearing to rubber-stamp his exit, how have the Spanish and English papers reacted to the news and could there be one final twist?
View from Spain: All eyes on PSG and Man City
Could Messi be about to be reunited with Pep Guardiola? That is the view of the Spanish paper who first broke the news the player would not be renewing his contract.
Marca report: "His options will be limited, though, as clubs cannot afford to meet his salary demands with much ease. But all eyes have turned to Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
"As things stand, Man City are the favourites to sign him, but they have just spent big on Jack Grealish and had been interested in Tottenham's Harry Kane as well, while also knowing that a move for Messi isn't financially easy to pull off.
"With Kane's deal far from done, the Premier League champions already look to be changing their plans and turning their attention to Messi. Of course, Guardiola would love to work with the Argentine again."
Another Spanish paper has revealed Messi's 'surprise' to the final breakdown in talks he had maintained throughout the past few months as Barcelona sought a creative way of paying his extortionate wages.
Players have been signed on free transfers this summer with Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero both arriving at the club in the hope of being able to team up with Messi, and Sport claim the Argentine's family had been under the impression he would sign the new contract up until Thursday.
Their report claims: "Messi's father Jorge had travelled to Barcelona to close the agreement and both he and Messi thought the economic conditions were fully agreed.
"All that was left was for there to be an official announcement. When he arrived and met with Joan Laporta, he was told that La Liga's Financial Fair Play (FFP) requirements meant Barcelona were already at their limit.
"After been told the news, Messi even offered to lower his wage demands even more in order to fall within the salary limits for the coming season.
"Laporta was given time to consider this alternative and they then had to wait on the final decision of La Liga - but there was still no way of overcoming the salary cap lock."
View from England: Barca have betrayed Messi
In The Times, Henry Winter writes: "Remember the date, August 5, 2021, and the time, 6.51pm. It is no exaggeration to claim that no one who loves football will ever forget it. What happened at that point felt so seismic, strange, sad and wrong. It was one of those jaw- dropping moments, one of those events in history when you will always remember where you were when the administration at Nou Camp tweeted the statement headlined: "Leo #Messi will not continue with Barcelona."
"In the modern way, they even hashtagged Messi in this trending, heart-rending news. This is more than a club story, this is global. Visitors thought the Sagrada Família would be finished in Barcelona before Messi."
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail's Spanish football writer Peter Jenson says: "The blame game has already started at Barcelona - who is most responsible for the club allowing its greatest ever player to slip away when he clearly still has two or three years of brilliant football left?
"The club's former president Josep Bartomeu will always be the man most attached to this catastrophic failure to run a football club properly. Had he not overseen the squandering of vast sums of money on the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele the club would not be in the financial mire, regardless of the pandemic.
"He should have renewed Messi several seasons ago instead of breaking transfer records on players who have then been monumental failures.
"La Liga president Javier Tebas will be blamed by many for going too far with the Spanish League's internal financial fair play rules.
"One thing was to get Spain's house in order and radically reverse the shameful position many clubs were in - spending fortunes on players while owing the Spanish tax man huge sums, but could he have been more pragmatic after a pandemic that has wrenched 300m from the coffers of Spain's clubs?
"Surely it's in La Liga's interests to keep Messi and in Real Madrid's interest to be cut more financial slack so they can make signings this summer? Could Tebas not have met with Spain's big four clubs to thrash out a solution."
Finally, in the Daily Telegraph, Sam Wallace says Barca have betrayed Messi: " A decade ago the great myth of invincibility around Barcelona was at its strongest - a team with two Champions League titles in three years, capable of playing Manchester United off the Wembley pitch and with the world's greatest player at the heart of this irresistible, unique force.
"Ten years on and the legacy of Lionel Messi - of Pep Guardiola and the modern reimagining of football - has been squandered in the most extraordinary terms. A club that should have set the standards for the world game, a fan-owned cooperative, a local movement of global repute, has thrown it all away. Now Barcelona are reduced to threatening La Liga, and the financial rules for which they voted - Spanish football's "Control Económico" - in a desperate last attempt to generate the cash to keep their greatest player, their biggest asset and, increasingly, their only hope.
"Messi departing Barcelona. How has it come to this? In its most recent published accounts in June last year, Barcelona reported a negative working capital - debts that exceeded short-term assets. Encompassing debts of €320m (£284m) to other clubs in transfer fees; bank borrowing of €280m (£249m); bonds of €200m (£178m); unpaid wages of €200m; debts to suppliers of €84m (£75m), and public administrators €55m (£49m). The club's €146m (£130m) state-backed credit line was eaten up by last summer's six-monthly wage bill.
"In short, Barcelona are broke. Their total debts exceed €1 billion and will be revealed in full when the next annual financial reports are published this summer. The club say they have an agreement with Messi for his new contract but under La Liga rules, which set wage caps according to 12-month revenue projections, they might as well be paying their No 10 in seashells and bottle tops. Two years ago, Barcelona's La Liga-set wage cap exceeded €600m. They are expected to announce losses of around €300m this year which will be deducted from future revenue projections, thus triggering a severe adjustment in the club's wage capacity. Now it is likely to be capped in the low €200m region."
'Messi U-turn wouldn't surprise me'
La Liga expert Semra Hunter on Sky Sports News:
"There are three things that seem odd to me. The actual press release from the club is very short, with a very short thank you and good luck. None of the first-term members of the club or Ronald Koeman have said anything yet.
"Perhaps they have been told to hold fire; perhaps they're waiting to say what Laporta will say. The timing too - there's still three weeks until the market closes. So, yes, perhaps there's more to this story. I certainly think it's not the end. There's usually one more twist in the tale. A Messi U-turn wouldn't surprise me at all."
Analysis: Money issues for La Liga and Barcelona key
Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol on The Transfer Show:
"This is all about money, that's all this is about. Messi was on an incredible contract at Barcelona. He was on something like £100m a year. That ran out at the end of last season, and going forward there was no way Barcelona could give him that kind of contract again.
"The first reason is that they have financial problems because of the pandemic. The second is the financial fair play rules in Spanish football, there was no way they could give him another contract of the same size.
"Throughout the summer they've been working on a compromise, and the deal on the table was that he would have to take a pay cut. Up until this week, it looked like he was willing to accept that, with his wages dropping to around £50m. But in the past couple of days, everything has changed.
"We don't know yet if that's because he feels like he can get more money somewhere else, maybe a club is talking to him and saying come to Paris, we want to reunite you with Neymar, or what Barcelona are saying is true, and even if Barcelona did give him a 50-per-cent pay cut they would not be able to keep him."
Analysis: What will be the next step?
Sky Sports News' Dharmesh Sheth on The Transfer Show:
"If you rewind to this time last summer, Messi announced he wanted to leave Barcelona with one year remaining on his contract - he believed a clause in his contract allowed him to leave on a free transfer because he had noted his intention to leave the club by a certain date.
"Barcelona did not agree with that, there was a bit of a dispute between both parties and in the end, Messi reluctantly stayed at the club. He did say he wanted to leave and he cited family issues as well as another reason to finally decide he would remain at Barcelona.
"Since then, he has enjoyed a very good season, not so much trophy wise, but on the pitch for Barcelona and it seemed all systems go for a new, long-term contract that would take him beyond even his playing career - there was talk of life after playing, but within the institution of FC Barcelona.
"And now we have this news that Barcelona have said he will not continue at FC Barcelona and you just wonder now what the next step will be?
"Is this it, is this the full stop on Messi and FC Barcelona because they've said he will not continue with the club, or are there talks still to be had between both parties because they said it could not be formalised because of structural and economic obstacles.
"You wonder if those structural and economic obstacles can be overcome and yet provide a future for Messi at Barcelona. But as it stands, he does not have a future at that club."