Monday 7 September 2020 18:57, UK
Lionel Messi has returned to training with Barcelona for the first time since the fallout with the club over his future.
Messi and Philippe Coutinho were seen training away from the main group a day after Barca tweeted an image of the record-breaking forward, 33, posing in the pink shirt of their third kit for 2020-21.
Messi last month informed Barcelona he wanted to depart this summer and intended to utilise a clause in his contract which he and his representatives claimed allowed him to do so on a free transfer.
Barca insisted the time had passed for the clause to be activated and that the player would need to pay the €700m release clause in his contract if another club wanted to sign him this summer.
Messi subsequently revealed in an interview, published on Friday, that he had reversed his decision, saying he could never go to court against the club to secure a move.
Sky Sports News' Dharmesh Sheth on Messi's decision to stay: "It strikes me as one of the uneasiest truces you could come to. I don't think either party can claim victory. The courts would have been the only way through this but Messi did not want to go to court with 'the club of his life'.
"A court case would never have concluded before the transfer window closed so we would have ended up on the position we are now: no move for Messi and no money for Barcelona.
"In an ideal situation, Messi would want to go. In an ideal situation, Barcelona would have wanted 700m euros or a substantial transfer fee. Neither Messi nor Barcelona have got what they want."
Spanish football journalist Alvaro Montero believes Messi could extend his stay at Barcelona beyond next season if club president Josep Maria Bartomeu leaves.
"The very first moment he scores a goal and plays as well as he can, I think Barcelona fans could forgive him," Montero told Sky Sports News.
"If you ask Barcelona fans about Lionel Messi and Josep Maria Bartomeu, I would say 95 per cent would be with Messi and not Bartomeu and his board members.
"I think that it will be easier for Messi to stay if Bartomeu is out. That relationship is impossible to fix, so if Bartomeu leaves after the elections and there is a new president, the possibility could increase."
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The summer transfer window will run for 10 weeks from July 27 and close at 11pm on October 5.
A domestic-only window for trades between the Premier League and EFL then runs from October 5 and closes on Friday, October 16 at 5pm. Follow all the news and analysis on Sky Sports News and across Sky Sports' digital platforms, including with our dedicated Transfer Centre blog.
