Lionel Messi may leave Spain after continuing to have tax issues, according to sources.

Messi earlier this year agreed a new €50m (£40m) salary with Barcelona and has complained that he is being singled out for special treatment compared with other elite sports players in Spain with disputed tax affairs.

Messi had his first run-in over tax last year when he was accused of concealing €4.1m earned from image rights in shell companies in Belize and Uruguay.

Under Spanish law, anyone who has more than €120,000 in undeclared income automatically faces a jail sentence, but this is generally waived if the offender agrees to pay. Messi paid an agreed €5m in settlement but the authorities have decided to force him to stand trial with the possibility of prison.

Sources close to Messi told the newspaper El Confidencial: “… there are other elite sportspeople who have tax problems and they’ve all been settled administratively, as was the case with Real Madrid players Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas and tennis star Rafa Nadal. Messi is the only one who faces legal proceedings that could end with him going to jail. He’s fed up with Spain and that’s why he wants to leave.”

Messi has said he's wanted to finish his career at Barça, but that "sometimes things don't wor out as you planned."

In the current atmosphere of hostility between Catalonia and the Spanish government, the fact that the Real Madrid players settled out of court while Barcelona’s star faces criminal proceedings is seen as further evidence of an anti-Catalan conspiracy.