Lionel Messi wants Barcelona to sign top Manchester United target, Real Madrid to offer €147 million trio to Manchester United for Paul Pogba and more: Transfer Roundup, 2 June 2019

Lionel Messi urges Barcelona to seal the signing of Matthijs De Ligt

Barcelona endured a rather anti-climactic end to their season crashing out of the UEFA Champions League and subsequently losing the Copa Del Rey final. Ernesto Valverde's future is a hot topic of discussion as are Barcelona's plans for the summer.

Barcelona looked set to have a decent outing in the ongoing transfer window with Matthijs De Ligt being one of the biggest names that was widely tipped to join La Blaugrana. However, the emergence of Manchester City and Manchester United in the scene and the lucrativeness of the contracts on offer in England has tipped the scales in the Manchester teams' favour.

Messi still wants Barcelona to secure the services of the 19-year-old Ajax captain. In fact, the report claims that Messi saw the signing as vital given Pique's age and the cloud of doubt that hangs above Samuel Umtiti.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad