Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals bring out humour after Lionel Messi bids Barcelona goodbye

Lionel Messi, the legendary Argentinian football, has decided to bid adieu to Barcelona. The 33-year-old, on Tuesday, August 25, sent a fax to the Spanish domestic team, saying that he wishes to exercise a clause of his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect. Back in 2004, Messi made his debut for the club and has won the Champions League four times.

In the meantime, Barcelona reckon that Messi’s clause has expired and he is contracted to play until 2021 with a 700m euro buy-out clause. Barcelona, on August 16, went through a horrendous time after Bayern Munich beat them by 8-2 in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Lionel Messi bids adieu

The Barcelona board will be meeting soon and consider that the only thing that could stop Messi is the resignation of the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and elections. Thereafter, the Barca fans gathered outside the Nou Camp, showing their support for Messi and protesting against the board.

Amidst all the chaos and commotion, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals, two of the franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), also churned out some comments on the matter. The two IPL teams, dropped in posts, blended with humour.

The Capitals took to Twitter and wrote, “ANNOUNCEMENT In light of recent rumours, Delhi Capitals would like to confirm that a bid for #LionelMessi has not been made.”

Here’s the Capitals’ tweet  

The Knights took to Twitter and wrote, “Mr. #Messi, How about donning the Purple and Gold?”

Here’s KKR’s tweet

As far as KKR and DC are concerned, the teams are set to take part in the 2020 IPL, scheduled to get underway on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The tournament was set to start in the month of March, but couldn’t take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It had to be postponed for an indefinite time period after which the September-November window was zeroed in on.

There will be protocols in place, bearing in mind the current scenario. Players and other staff will need to stay in their bio-security bubbles. The final is set to be played on November 10 with Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi being the venues for the event.