Premier League club Manchester City is reportedly set to offer La Liga giants Barcelona a world transfer record-breaking bid of $120 million for the signature of Lionel Messi.

There are rumors that Barcelona and Messi, whose current deal will expire in 2018, are not seeing eye-to-eye with regards to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's contract extension at the Nou Camp.

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The defending Spanish champions are said to be not ready financially to compensate Messi's current salary demands after renewing the contracts of Neymar and Luis Suárez and so other big-money teams are hovering in the side to take advantage of the situation.

One of the clubs rumored to be targeting Messi is Manchester City, whose current head coach Pep Guardiola was the Argentina international's former boss at the Blaugrana from 2008 to 2012.

ESPN reported that Guardiola is prepared to spend £100 million ($120 million) to get back his former superstar player and bring him at the Etihad Stadium. The said amount would shatter the current transfer record of £89 million ($108 million) set when Manchester United acquired Frenchman Paul Pogba from Juventus last summer.

City is also said to be planning to give Messi a weekly wage of £800,000 ($966,000), which would make him the highest-paid football player in the world. Speculations recently went out that Messi received an £850,000 ($1.02 million) per week offer from China.

The report noted that Barça's "willingness to listen" has "encouraged" City's senior officials to push through with the negotiations. It was mentioned that "talks between executives of both clubs were held at the end of last month to determine whether a world-record transfer is possible". 

While an official offer is not yet placed on the table, reports were out that the meeting's result was "positive".

The Sun indicated that Barça has yet to place a formal price "or even confirm they will sell" the Argentina team captain and so a deal is still not certain.

Messi has scored 27 goals in a total of 24 games in all competitions for Barça so far this season.

Tags Football Transfer Rumors, Football Transfer Rumors 2017, lionel messi, FC Barcelona, Manchester City