Lionel Messi's career at Barcelona has finally come to an end, and he is set to depart before the start of the new season. The Catalan club have confirmed they will be unable to renew the contract of their star player, and that he is free to take on a new challenge.Barcelona agreed a new deal with Messi, which would have seen him stay at the club for another five years on significantly reduced wages. However, the club could not comply with La Liga's wage limits and had to withdraw their offer.During a press conference, Barcelona president Joan Laporta revealed the circumstances that led to Messi's exit."Leo Messi wanted to stay at Barcelona, he had an agreement to stay at Barça and we wanted Leo to stay. I want to thank Leo's camp and all people involved in the negotiations. Unfortunately, because of LaLiga rules we can't proceed.""Negotiations with Leo Messi have ended. We can't register Messi because of LaLiga rules, they're not flexible with us on salary limit. We had an agreement with Leo but we can't register him. Leo will now look at other options, we had a deadline.""We can't register a contract with Leo Messi that was agreed because of Financial Fair Play rules. Chances to change the situation and re-sign Messi? I don't want to give fake hopes. We had a deadline because LaLiga is starting soon... now Messi can look at other options." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fabrizio Romano (@fabriziorom)Now with Messi set to leave, we take a look at the winners and losers from the stunning development.Winner: Whichever club lands Lionel MessiImagine signing one of the greatest players of all time for free. Any club would jump at the chance of doing so, as long as they have the means to match Lionel Messi's demands.Right now, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Chelsea have the financial power to sign the Argentine. All three clubs would offer Messi an opportunity to compete at the highest level for a few more years and win the elusive Champions League trophy.Will Messi pick one of them?🚨 ÚLTIMA HORA 🚨🔵 Los 'blues' se suman a la puja por el argentino tras su salida del Barcelona pic.twitter.com/MjV0AmLJG3— Diario AS (@diarioas) August 6, 2021Losers: La Liga for letting Lionel Messi leave BarcelonaLa Liga technically did nothing wrong by standing their ground and making sure they did not bend the rules for Barcelona. However, with Lionel Messi leaving, La Liga will also suffer as the number of viewers will reduce drastically.The biggest problem for La Liga at the moment is that a large section of the younger supporters are fans of a particular player rather than the club itself. Lionel Messi is a tremendous draw and with him leaving Spain, there is a very good chance of viewership from outside the country drastically reducing.