By Tim Stannard

Barcelona continue race to sign up Messi before contract runs out on Wednesday night

Argentina's Copa America match against Bolivia on Monday night was not a game where Lionel Messi's participation was required. The Albiceleste were already through to the quarterfinals, as the tournament completed the arduous two-and-half-week process of whittling down the number of teams from an unwieldy ten to a more manageable eight by sending Bolivia and Venezuela on their way. 

However, Messi took to the field nonetheless, scored two goals in a 4-1 victory and in doing so the Barcelona forward broke the record for most appearances for his national team with his 148th match. There will no doubt be an update to Messi's LinkedIn page on Tuesday as in just two days time, Barcelona's Lionel Messi will become simply...Lionel Messi, as the player is cut loose from the LaLiga club. 

With Messi's contract with Barcelona running out at midnight on Wednesday in Spain, time is running out on Barcelona's preferred plan of announcing a new deal before that deadline happens and Messi takes to the field against Ecuador on Saturday with 'unattached' on the team sheet.

The hurdles are still high to make this happen with Joan Laporta having to put together a deal that Messi will agree to and one that won't either fall foul of a LaLiga wage cap or completely bankrupt the club. 

The clock is ticking. 

'Life over sport' campaign falters after Mbappe miss 

After Christian Eriksen's near death on a soccer pitch, there followed a period of sombre, philosophical reflections from pundits and fans on the overarching importance of life versus the frivolities of sport. "It puts everything into perspective" was the familiar declaration. 

That whole perspective-putting process lasted mere days. Pretty much until the knockout stages of Euro 2020, to be exact. Unless, you were Spain's Alvaro Morata whose children received death threats from the start of the tournament. 

Business-as-normal resumed over the weekend with hypocritical, histrionic declarations of catastrophic disasters from players, analysts and supporters as big teams with high hopes began being eliminated from the tournament, something that will eventually happen to 23 of the 24 side who entered. So not that unusual. 

Kylian Mbappe is the chosen one for the heat of hatred on Tuesday after the capital crime of missing a penalty which lead to France bowing out of the tournament, but in highly entertaining fashion against Switzerland. 

"I am sorry for this penalty. I wanted to help the team but I failed," declared Mbappe on social media for the heinous crime of not kicking a ball into a net a few yards away, something of absolutely no consequence in the real world. 

Memes, blasting newspaper headlines, and probably death threats via the medium of social media are awaiting the likes of Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane today with England facing Germany in Euro 2020 in a Last-16 knockout clash. After all, England have not beaten their rival in a knockout match since the World Cup final of 1966, a record that looks set to continue. 

Silver lining though. If the loss doesn't come via a penalty shootout then the death threats might be reduced in number.