Lionel Messi Photo: VCG

You may have heard that Lionel Messi has told FC Barcelona that he wants to leave the club.

For some reason a footballer ­asking to leave his employers during the transfer window is front-page news.

Joking aside, everyone seems to be talking about it, which is totally understandable. Messi has been a one-club man, moving to Barcelona as a teenager to join their famed La Masia academy nearly 20 years ago, spending 15 of them in the first team and winning 33 major trophies plus countless individual awards.

That could be fans of football clubs hoping that the six-time Ballon d'Or winner will pick them, with all of the gleeful enthusiasm of the minions in Despicable Me - or is that Despicable Messi? - or making memes of the Argentine superstar in their own club's shirts.

That's ranged from Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F, Hong Kong Premier League champions Tai Po or Scottish Premier League powerhouse Glasgow Celtic, the clubs - or at least the fans of those clubs - hoping for Messi is myriad.

The smart money is a little closer to home, or at least the manager who shared Messi's greatest days at the Camp Nou, Pep Guardiola.

Now at English Premier League runners-up Manchester City, there is talk of a reunion between the pair who won so much together at Barcelona in the four years after Guardiola was handed the reins from Frank Rijkaard in 2008 and Messi was the player he built the team around more than any other.

That is seen as the missing step for the club to finally win the UEFA Champions League. It is a similar story with this season's losing finalists Paris St-Germain, who lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in their first-ever appearance in the Champions League final. The goal for both clubs and their owners - the Qatari royal family for the Parisiens and their Abu Dhabi equivalents at the Etihad Stadium - is becoming champions of Europe. The 33-year-old from Rosario is as close to a cheat code as the real-life modern game allows.

Manchester City are reported to think they stand a "good chance" of securing Barcelona's wantaway captain and record scorer.

Whatever happens, the understanding is that Barcelona may offer a legal challenge to Messi's assertion that he can leave for free or at least ask for a fee to recoup at least of his 700 million euro ($827 million) ­buyout clause from whomever he joins.

It is unlikely to be solved this weekend so Messi has time to think on where he might really want to go next. Yes, he could go to challenge Barcelona and longtime rivals Real Madrid by reuniting with Guardiola at Manchester City or with former teammate Neymar in Paris - but where should he really go?

Here are some alternative options for Messi to consider.

Manchester United

The talk is of a switch across town but why not Old Trafford? The club are back in the Champions League this season and Messi could help the club win one, rather than be responsible for them losing two. He could make up for his master classes of 2009 and 2011 while also cooling the boring transfer talk around Jadon Sancho.

SS Napoli

There was once another former Argentina international regarded as the best player in the world but the doubt only went away when swapped the Camp Nou for the Sao Paolo. Diego Maradona left Barcelona for Napoli in 1984.

SL Benfica

He might be a six-time Ballon d'Or winner with 33 major trophies under his belt for Barcelona but once young Lionel from Rosario was but a boy and like most he had a footballing hero. Pablo Aimar was a young ­Messi's and the elder Argentine starred at the Stadium of Light for Benfica. It's been a while since the Lisbon side troubled the latter stages of the Champions League and if anyone can end Bela Guttmann's curse then it must surely be Messi.

Leeds United

The all-white kits might be hard to take for the Barcelona player but it would send a messgae that he is over the Blaugrana once and for all. More excitingly the idea of Messi working with the man many see as his coaching equivalent, fellow Argentine Marcelo Bielsa, is irresistible. He would have to wait at least one season for a crack at the Champions League with the side only just promoted to the Premier League.

Newell's Old Boys

One for the sentimental as this was the side that Messi left for Barcelona as a teen. A return to his boyhood club and then taking them to the Copa Libertadores would be a fine end to any career.

Qingdao Huanghai 

They wear the same colors as the Barcelona side that inspire them and were until recently coached by Guardiola's mentor Juanma Lillo, who is now his assistant in Manchester. Messi could continue Lillo's fine work, surely with Guardiola's blessing.

Vissel Kobe

They said they could not afford Andres Iniesta and then tiki-taka's tormenter in chief appeared in Kobe after Barcelona. Why not Messi? The idea of two of Guardiola's most trusted trident reuniting is worth considering and Rakuten, who sponsors Barcelona as well as owning the J.League side, can afford it.

Maine Road

There was a time when there were stories of new Manchester City ­signings being shocked to be ­presented with a blue shirt at their unveilings, thinking they had signed with the city's other team, the one known simply as "Manchester" overseas. Those days are gone but let's ­assume that there can still be confusion and Messi ends up at Maine Road, a club named after their former ground and founded by the City Supporters Group in Rusholme. They've moved a few miles to Chorlton-cum-Hardy since and the heady heights of the the North West Counties League Division One South. It's not like Messi needs the money - although Spanish journalist Guillem Balague said he does want to battle for the Champions League after a trophyless season - but winning the Ballon d'Or at Brantingham Road would be the biggest achievement of his career.