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Abidal reveals Barca are making moves to tie down Messi's future

  /  autty

Eric Abidal has revealed in an interview with SPORT that Barcelona are making moves to tie down Lionel Messi's future with the club.

Barça's sporting director says the Spanish champions after convinced the Argentina forward will remain at Camp Nou for many, many years. 

"For us, he's a key player," Abidal told SPORT. "He has an option to leave in his contract, but I know that the president is speaking with his representatives to close the case once and for all." 

Messi renewed in 2017 but has a clause that would allow him to leave from free next summer. However, he's always expressed his happiness to remain at Barça and, if possible, to retire at the club. 

Abidal added: "I hope he stays here for many more years and I believe that he will. It will be Leo's decision. And, as he says, Barça before anything else. He's the best." 

The Argentine star returned to international duty this week following a ban for comments made at the Copa America. He scored the winning goal in a win over Brazil in Saudi Arabia. 

Messi is in great form and recently won FIFA's The Best. He could follow that up with the Ballon d'Or next month.