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BARCELONA (Reuters) – Barcelona captain Lionel Messi attended training on Monday for the first time since applying to leave the club last month.
Messi had not appeared for the club’s tests for COVID-19 eight days ago and was absent from all subsequent sessions before the new campaign after giving the club an official notice that he wanted to leave.
But the club’s all-time top scorer finally showed up at Joan Gamper’s training ground ahead of an evening session, his first with new coach Ronald Koeman, after getting tested for the novel coronavirus at his home on Sunday.
Messi, 33, revealed last Friday in an interview with Goal.com that he would stay at Barça next season as he did not want to face a court case with the club in which he has spent his entire career for a termination clause disputed in your contract.
The Argentine stated in an official letter that he was free to leave the club unilaterally and without a transfer fee due to the clause.
But Barça and the league’s organizing body responded by saying that the clause was no longer valid and that the only way to release him from his contract was by paying a release clause of 700 million euros (827.68 million dollars).
Messi, however, will be able to leave for free next June unless he signs a new contract with Barça.
Barça, which will seek to regain the La Liga title after handing it over to Real Madrid last season, is left out of the first two weeks of the new campaign that starts on Friday to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Koeman’s team will play preseason friendlies against Gimnastic de Tarragona on Saturday, September 12 and Girona on September 16, before their first home league game against Villarreal on September 27.
(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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