Barcelona remain keen on rebuilding their team around captain Lionel Messi and will do everything in their power to keep the Argentine forward, new technical secretary Ramon Planes said Wednesday.
Messi's lawyers Tuesday sent a document to Barca expressing the 33-year old's desire to activate a release clause in his contract which would allow him to leave for nothing.
Barca, however, say the clause has expired and a rival club must pay his release clause of 700m euros ($827m) if he is to leave without the club's consent.
Messi, world player of the year a record six times, has grown increasingly unhappy over the last 12 months about how the club is being run under president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
His request to leave Barca comes less than two weeks after their humiliating 8-2 defeat by Bayern in the Champions League quarter-final, which condemned the Spanish club to a trophyless season for the first time in 12 years.
Planes, tasked with overseeing the club's transfers, remains optimistic about the team under new coach Ronald Koeman.