How the newspapers reacted to Lionel Messi’s decision to stay at Barcelona

Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi is back on the covers on Saturday after his dramatic interview with Goal, where he announced that he would be staying at Barcelona after all.

‘I will stay and give my best’ is the cover of Mundo Deportivo. The Catalan newspaper also has a selection of key quotes from Messi’s interview, focusing on how he thought his time at the club was up, the discomfort he caused his family, but how he refused to take Barça to court.

The sport uses the now infamous “He Stays” quote as Saturday’s main headline. They also have a selection of quotes from Messi’s interview, but decide to go with a photo of the captain in the new home kit for 2020-21.

Brand are a bit more pessimistic. ‘Messi stays and the crisis too’ is his version of the latest events at the Camp Nou. Their covers focus on Messi saying that he would not take the club to the field and his criticisms of the board: “There has been no project or anything in a long time, they juggle and cover gaps as things go by.”

‘I’m staying’ is AS’s title single alongside a photo of Messi and his quote that he would not go to court against “the club of my life.”

The cover also notes how Messi said that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu always told him that he could decide his future at the end of the season, but that “he did not keep his word.”