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over 18s only. Please gamble responsibly. Earlier this week the greatest footballer in the history of the game served notice to one of the

world's biggest clubs that he wishes to terminate his contract. Yes, Leonel

Messy really is in the process of forcing his way out of Barcelona. I'm Ed Malian

managing director of the

athletic and I'll be hosting the messy cast, providing you with constant

updates on the biggest transfer story in history. For our second

episode I'm joined by Dermic Corrigan, the athletic Spanish correspondent based in Madrid, who has been at the heart of this story since it broke on Tuesday.

Dermot today I want to focus on the man who I guess is the villain in this whole piece, Jose at Maria Bartomeu and his role in the politics of

FC Barcelona. So Dermit, give us some background on the man and how he

became president. It's an amazing story really because I don't think Bartomeo

ever expected to be Barcelona president and few would ever have

a predicament rising to our position either.

He was a Barcelona social, he was a Barcelona fan since he was a boy, was born in the Catalan capital,

but basketball was always his sport. He played a little bit in Parsis youth system of

basketball not for very long and then came through the ranks at Espagnol across the city and played for them but not in a professional way.

And so basketball was his sport and meanwhile he went to university,

was a very successful businessman in the family business and engineering business.

But even still, it was never seen as somebody who would, you know, be a mover and

shaker, somebody would move up into sports politics.

...