Is Lionel Messi moving to Manchester City: Separating the fact from the fiction

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A few weeks ago a news on social media started doing the rounds that Manchester City were ready to trigger the release clause of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. And that release clause is a whopping €300 million. The news was such that it was immediately picked up by a series of people and it spread like wildfire.

So is it really true that Manchester City and Pep Guardiola are keen to sign Lionel Messi?

Background:

The news came up when an Arabic Twitter account quoted Sheikh Mansour. According to the tweet, Mansour said that Manchester City are on the verge of the biggest deal in footballing history.

This news had no verification whatsoever and was probably fake. But it got picked up by another Arabic account and they went on to claim that Manchester City were set to trigger the release clause of Lionel Messi.

Another news that added fuel to this fire was the fact that someone unearthed that Lionel Messi had started following Manchester City on Instagram. While this bit of news is true but to add to it, Messi also follows the likes of Chelsea as well as Thibaut Cortouis on Instagram.

So we can very well see how a tweet from a random non-verified Twitter account got picked up and Lionel Messi moving to Man City suddenly became the story of the day.

News from verified sources:

While everyone was on the verge of understanding that this bit of news was probably fake and had no concrete evidence whatsoever they were hit by another shocking development.

This time a journalist from the Daily Record went to claim that Manchester City have met Lionel Messi’s representatives to discuss a potential move to the Premier League.

This news came from a much more verified as well as mainstream source so everyone had a thought that this bit of news might actually have some reality to it.

Debunking:

As soon as Lionel Messi moving to Man City started grabbing international attention, various sports journalists across Europe came out and immediately brought it down.

Even the Barcelona management wasted no time in stopping more rumours from spreading and the club’s director Robert Fernández made a statement to beIN Sports after Barcelona’s match against Real Betis.

Fernandez said, “The agreement between Messi and Barcelona is total; we are looking for the right moment to sign it”

So now we can safely say that Lionel Messi is not coming to Manchester City anytime soon.

Sorry to break your heart, Man City fans.