The legendary forward was in tears as he confirmed that he wanted to stay at the club, but it was not possible.
Barça’s perilous financial predicament means the club were unable to register the 34-year-old, who had even accepted a 50 per cent wage reduction.
Messi was convinced last week that he would be continuing at Barcelona, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.
But the six-time Ballon d’Or winner and his family are now poised to move elsewhere, and Paris appears to be their next destination.
Messi did not travel to Paris on Monday
Messi was expected in the French capital on Monday to put pen to paper on a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
Large groups of Parisians assembled outside Le Bourget airport and the Parc des Princes to welcome the player considered by many as the greatest footballer ever.
However, it later transpired that Messi was still at his home in Barcelona. Media outlets who set up camp outside his home in Castelldefels spotted the South American walking around in his swim shorts.
Reports claimed that Messi and his representatives, including his father Jorge, were carefully considering PSG’s offer.
It had also been revealed that Messi had received offers from two other clubs – rumoured to be Chelsea and Tottenham – following his abrupt departure from Barcelona.
Barcelona ‘make final offer to Lionel Messi’
But in a dramatic twist in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Spanish outlet La Porteria – per Argentine football writer Roy Nemer and other journalists, including Sport’s Albert Roge – claim that Barça have submitted one final proposal to Messi in a last-ditch attempt to keep him.
The tweet claims that Messi and Barcelona will negotiate the offer, which arrives after the player said his goodbyes.
Spanish football expert Graham Hunter says the journalist behind the shock report, Marc Marba, is ‘usually accurate’.
