LIONEL Messi’s Barcelona career has come to an end because the cash-strapped Spanish club cannot afford to keep the Argentinian superstar, club president Joan Laporta said.

In a dramatic news conference, Laporta said he was not prepared “to put the club at risk” by renewing Messi’s contract, with Barca facing huge financial problems ahead of the start of La Liga.

Laporta said Barcelona were no longer negotiating with Messi and the 34-year-old forward was considering other offers.

“Yesterday (Thursday) we realised it was over. I had the last conversation with Leo’s father,” said Laporta.

“I do not want to give false hope. The player has other offers and there is a time limit because La Liga starts soon and he needs time to assess his other options.”

Paris Saint-Germain are expected to lead the chase for Messi but Manchester City, who attempted to sign him last year, could also join the bidding. “It’s logical he will have some big offers,” said Laporta.

Messi reached an agreement with Barcelona to sign a five-year contract with the trade-off that he earn 50 percent less per year.

But La Liga’s financial fair play rules, which are expected to reduce Barca’s salary limit to less than 200 million euros this season, led Laporta to conclude they were unable to complete the deal.

“We could not accommodate Messi’s contract,” said Laporta, who was re-elected as club president in March.

“The situation we have inherited is abominable and the sports salary bill represents 110 per cent of the club’s income. We have no margin for salaries.

“La Liga’s rules set limitations and we have no margin. We knew the situation since we arrived but the numbers we have seen are even worse than we thought.”

Barcelona have total debts of almost 1.2 billion euros, with more than half of that needing to be repaid in the short-term.

Laporta said they have found the club’s losses for the season just ended to be almost 500 million euros, more than double what they expected.

La Liga announced a deal with US private equity firm CVC earlier this week, under which it agreed to sell 10 percent of the business for 50 years, in exchange for an immediate injection of 2.7 billion euros. Clubs in Spain’s top two divisions would receive 90 percent of the funds.

Laporta said Barca could have registered Messi by agreeing to the deal but insisted it was a risk he was not prepared to take.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have both publicly objected to the CVC agreement, with both clubs still in favour of, and attached to, the European Super League.

“We were not prepared to put the club at risk in this way,” said Laporta. “Barca had to be in favour of a contract that would mortgage our television rights for half a century.

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“I am not willing to mortgage the club for anyone. We have an institution that is above everyone, even the best player in the world.”

MESSI’S RECORD FOR BARCA

A deal had been agreed for the Argentina star to finish his career with the club where he has scored 672 goals in 778 appearances since his debut in 2004, but their financial situation meant the contract could not be signed. Below is Messi’s impact on the club.

RECORD GOALSCORER

MESSI’S goal tally for Barca is the most ever by a player for one club, after he passed Pele’s record of 643 for Santos last season.He is comfortably LaLiga’s record goalscorer with 474 and is also second all-time in the Champions League, with 120 to his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s 134. Last season’s 30 goals won him an eighth Pichichi trophy, awarded to LaLiga’s top scorer, while he has led the Champions League goal charts six times including 2014-15 when he shared the honour with Ronaldo and Neymar.

He has scored Champions League goals in 16 seasons, matching Ryan Giggs’ record, and unlike the former Manchester United man he has done so in consecutive years dating back to 2005-06.

Messi’s 2011-12 seasons, when he scored 73 times in 60 games for Barca in all competitions including a league half-century, remains an astonishing high watermark. He passed 50 in all club competitions on five other occasions, with four more campaigns in the 40s and over 30 in every season since 2008-09.

TROPHY HAUL

MESSI won 34 major trophies with Barca, when including domestic and European super cups and the Club World Cup in that definition.

They won LaLiga in 10 of his 17 seasons in the first team, with seven Copa Del Rey triumphs – including last season – and four domestic doubles along the way. Seven Supercopa wins boost Messi’s total to 24 honours in Spain – Barca won eight in that time, but he did not play in the two-leg 2005 win over Real Betis. He added another 10 continental or inter-continental successes, with Barca winning the Champions League in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 and adding both the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup after the latter three of those. Messi has also won the Ballon d’Or, awarded to the world’s best player, on six occasions including four in succession from 2009. International honours with Argentina had largely eluded him, save for an Olympic gold medal from 2008, until he led his side to Copa America glory last month.

HAT-TRICKS AND BEYOND

MESSI scored 48 hat-tricks for Barca, including 36 in LaLiga, with another six for Argentina taking him through the half-century mark for his career as a whole.

He scored four goals on six separate occasions – in league games with Valencia, Espanyol, Osasuna and twice against Eibar, plus a Champions League win over Arsenal in 2010.He also recorded one five-goal haul in Europe, against Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 second leg in 2012 as Barca won 7-1 and 10-2 on aggregate.