Manchester City's plan to sign Lionel Messi on January

If everything would have gone the way Messi wanted it, he would now be a Manchester City player. There's no doubt about that. No matter which other options appeared on the way, Messi would have reunite with Pep Guardiola and Sergio Agüero in arguably the richest club on Earth.

That reunion is still very possible. As things are, right now, Messi will be a free agent by 2021.It seems extremely difficult to image Messi extending his contract with Barca, although a new president could be the key. But if a new front office is unable to convince Messi to stay, he will test the free agency as a top target.

In that situation, Manchester City would be more equalize with their rivals over Messi. As money won't be needed to singed him, clubs could extend to Messi enormous  contract offers easily. Local rivals Manchester United, Juventus, Chelsea, Paris Saint Germain, Inter and Liverpool are among the teams that could fulfill this test.

To avoid that competition, in which City could lose, the Mancunian team is considering to offer FC Barcelona £450 million for Messi in January, according to a Daily Star report. In addition, by then the elections on FCB will have been held and the new president will have already had the chance to try to convince the Argentine to stay, so the offer would be made knowing if Messi -once again- desperately wants to leave Barcelona.