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The Argentine wanted to leave the Blaugrana this summer but ultimately decided he was unwilling to get involved in a legal battle with the club.
Luis Suárez believes that Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona if the club incorporates a new board, which would include the replacement of current president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Messi was about to leave Barcelona in the summer and told the club that he wanted to activate a termination clause in his contract, before reversing his decision when he told him objective that he had decided to stay to avoid a possible legal fight against the club.
The 33-year-old, whose contract expires at the end of the current season, is still far from happy with the club’s leadership, saying that Bartomeu and company have failed to build a winning team around him for some time.
“The truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time, they juggle and cover gaps as things go by,” said Messi.
Messi’s anger was part of the reason for a no-confidence vote against Bartomeu, who could be ousted from office.
Suárez, who left Barcelona last month when he signed for Atlético de Madrid, said he spoke often with his good friend about his desire to leave Barcelona.
“Out of respect for the relationship I have with Leo, I am not going to say what we talked about at the time, but he lived through a difficult and complicated situation,” said Suárez. ESPN.
“He wanted to leave and the club didn’t want him to. I tried to support him, take care of him and distract him a bit.”
Suárez believes that part of the reason Barça wanted him to leave was because he had gotten too close to Messi.
“I think they wanted to move me away from Messi’s side, maybe it bothered them that I had a good relationship with Leo,” he said. “Maybe they wanted him not to be with me so much.”
The Uruguayan added that he does not believe that Messi’s desire to leave Barcelona has anything to do with the treatment the club gave him, although since then Messi has criticized Barça’s behavior towards the forward.
“That Messi wanted to leave Barcelona was not a gesture towards me. They should have respected his decision to leave, “added Suárez.
Suárez said that he will respect what Messi decides to do after the current campaign but believes that if there is a change at the top, the Argentine will be more inclined to stay at the Camp Nou.
“There may be the possibility that Messi plays for another club, but if he feels comfortable, happy again and another board arrives, he will want to stay at the club,” Suarez said.
“As a friend, I’ll be happy if he does well there and if he has to go to another club, I’ll be happy too.”
