With Barcelona legend Lionel Messi looking for a way out before the upcoming season, his next port of call is one of the hottest topics of the football world right now, and Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart's fans have decided to try and take the matter into their own hands with a crowdfunding campaign in an effort to bring the Argentine great to their side.
On their gofundme.com page, their mission statement expresses a desire to raise the astounding sum of €900m, with a message reading, "We VfB fans are collecting money to pay for Lionel Messi's transfer."
Messi was hoping to activate a clause that would've allowed him to leave the Blaugrana on a free transfer. However, Barca maintain that the clause expired in June and that any club wishing to secure Messi's services would have to shell out the €700m release clause, an amount that not very many clubs can afford.
The gofundme page has only raised €2,351 of the €900m target as of this writing, and in the likely possibility that they fail to raise the targeted sum, the money will go to a cause that's just as worthwhile, if not more so.
As per the official page, in the event that the planned amount is not reached on time or Lionel Messi joins another club, 100 percent of the money raised will be donated to Viva con Agua, a non-profit organisation that's 'committed to ensuring that all people worldwide have access to clean drinking water'.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Josep Lago
