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BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – Lionel Messi put an end to speculation about his future at Barcelona by announcing on Friday that he would begrudgingly stay one more season instead of facing his club on the pitch.
A week after saying he wanted to leave the La Liga team, and with the contract dispute still in place, the six-time 33-year-old player of the year broke the news that Barca fans were waiting for.
In doing so, however, the Argentine forward dealt a major blow to the club’s hierarchy.
“I was not happy and wanted to leave. I have not been allowed this in any way and I WILL REMAIN at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute,” Goal.com said.
“The management of the club that (president Josep Maria) Bartomeu directs is a disaster.
“I told the club, the president in particular, that I wanted to leave. They knew it since the beginning of last season. I told them for all (the) last 12 months. But I will stay here because I don’t know.” I don’t want to start a legal war. “
By staying with the Catalan club for the fourth and final year of his contract, Messi is entitled to a loyalty bonus of 63 million pounds ($ 83.38 million) and will be able to leave without a transfer fee.
On Friday, Messi’s father and manager, Jorge, had insisted in a letter to La Liga that a release clause of 700 million euros ($ 828.03 million) in the player’s contract was invalid and his son could go free.
However, despite the confrontation between Messi’s squad and Barcelona and La Liga, the player has ended the impasse and will see his contract with the club with which he has won more than 30 great trophies and scored more than 600 goals.
DISAPPOINTED CLUBS
The news that Messi will stay at Camp Nou, albeit grudgingly, will disappoint the clubs hoping to sign the iconic striker, including Premier League Manchester City, led by his former Barça manager Pep Guardiola.
Argentine pay TV station TYC Sports, which has close ties to Messi, had reported early Friday that Messi was set to stay at the Catalan club he joined as a teenager.
The situation was further complicated when Jorge Messi wrote to La Liga president Javier Tebas, dismissing his claim that the termination clause still applied if his son wished to leave.
He accused La Liga, which on Sunday backed Barça’s position, of making a mistake in interpreting the contract.
In the first place, we do not know which contract he has analyzed and on what grounds he concludes that there is a ‘termination clause’ applicable in the event that he decides to unilaterally terminate his contract as of the end of the 2019-20 season, “he said. . wrote in a letter posted on social media.
“It is clear that the compensation of 700 million euros, provided for in the previous clause … does not apply at all.”
La Liga responded to Jorge Messi’s letter saying it supported a statement in support of Barcelona issued on Sunday.
Messi dropped the bomb last week that he wanted to leave the club and that he could do so on a free transfer.
He didn’t show up for a preseason medical exam Sunday, making a move seem even more likely.
His lawyers wanted to invoke a clause in his four-year contract, signed in 2017, that would have allowed the forward to leave the club for free if he had requested it before June 10.
They argued that that date, nominally the end of the season, was irrelevant after the novel coronavirus pandemic forced an extension of La Liga’s campaign through August.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman in London; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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