Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has now revealed his stance as to where Lionel Messi should play his football next.
With little more than a month and a half left on Messi's current deal at Paris Saint-Germain, there appears to be a genuine expectation that he will leave the French club as a free agent next month.
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Contrary to recent reports, the player's father and agent, Jorge Messi, has insisted that his son his yet to put pen to paper on any agreement with any club.
Interested side Al Hilal are thought to have presented the 35-year-old with an extremely lucrative two-year proposal, said to be worth more than €400 million (R8.3 billion) a season.
Other potential suitors such as FC Barcelona and MLS club Inter Miami have not made any official bids, although they have been vocal about their interest in signing the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner.
With the Messi seemingly having a few options at his disposal, his national team coach has now insisted that the Albiceleste skipper should be free to join any team of his choice as long as he is happy, and that his next destination will have no bearing on his Argentina future.
"Let him go to where he will feel comfortable with his teammates and the club's fans," Scaloni said when asked about Messi's future on Qatar's Alkass Sports Channels.
"The matter does not affect us as a national team as long as he's happy when he joins us, and we need him to be happy."
French football pundit Ludovic Obraniak, meanwhile, has claimed that a move away from Europe is not a bad idea for the 2022 FIFA World Cup winner.
"I'm not going to criticise his choices because I myself made financial choices at the end of my career," Obraniak said on La Chaine L'Equipe.
"But I find, from my point of view, that the story would end moderately well. We feel that this guy is inhabited by passion; we feel that there is something. There, we would have liked a return to Barca or Argentina.
"We would have liked to see this so that the story ends in the most beautiful way. He's made so much money; does he really need to make more?
"He could still play in a competitive team and try to win another Champions League. They are monsters and I tell myself that they are more interested in titles."
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