German fan raises hundreds of euros in effort to lure Lionel Messi to Stuttgart

Tim Artmann’s appeal for the 33-year-old to trade the Catalans for Stuttgart has raised almost €500 of its €900m goal

A number of GoFundMe pages have been launched since Messi announced he wants to leave Barcelona (Nick Potts/PA)

A VfB Stuttgart fan has raised hundreds of euros in a game effort to tempt Lionel Messi to his club.

Tim Artmann created an online fundraiser on GoFundMe – where a number of such pages have been made since the Argentine announced his desire to leave Barcelona.

Mr Artmann’s appeal for the 33-year-old to trade the Catalans for Stuttgart has raised almost €500 of its €900m goal – but he is not confident about his chances of success.

“Messi is one of the best players in the world and I see no chance that he will come to our club, even if we reach our goal of money,” he told the PA news agency.

“If Messi chooses another club, the collected money will be donated.”

Mr Artmann, who works for German football magazine FUMS, is donating the funds to Viva con Agua, a charity focused on providing clean drinking water worldwide, which he admitted was a key reason behind his decision to start the fundraiser.

He is not alone in his effort to lure Messi however, although he appears to have had by far the most monetary success.

It can be presumed Manchester United fans set up the “Messi to Old Trafford” GoFundMe page, with a £100m (€112m) target, while another page trying to tempt Messi to Manchester – entitled “Transfer Messi to Man City” – set a much lower goal of 10 million Swiss francs (about €9.2m).

One page from a British user, Zayd Johar, does not specify a club but is entitled “Saving up to by Messi” with a £200m (€224m) goal – with the description “Any little helps”.

Meanwhile, some Barcelona fans appear to be trying to keep hold of the maestro, with one GoFundMe page – supposedly set up by a “Lionel Messi” – ambitiously believing a goal of a million US dollars (€830,000) will do the trick.