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Messi named in Koeman's first Barcelona squad as Suarez and Vidal miss out

Lionel Messi is in the Barcelona squad for Saturday's friendly with Gimnastic, but Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal will not be involved.

Captain Messi is in line to appear in Ronald Koeman's first match in charge despite having tried to engineer a move away from Barca in the past month.

The Argentina star decided to stay at Camp Nou for the final season of his deal rather than threaten Barca with a lawsuit, having tried unsuccessfully to argue that the clause allowing him to terminate his contract was still valid.

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Messi felt he was able to make use of that clause because the 2019-20 season was extended by the coronavirus pandemic, but Barca and La Liga insisted the timeframe in which he would have had to activate it had elapsed.