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A week and a half ago, Lionel Messi shocked the world of football. He sent a fax to Barcelona in which he made it clear that he would leave the club.
On Friday night the counter message arrived, as the Spanish media have speculated in the last 24 hours:
Messi remains at the club where he has played throughout his professional career.
– When I conveyed my desire to go to my wife and children, it was a great drama. The whole family began to cry and my children did not want to move from Barcelona or change schools, says Messi in an exclusive interview with Goal.
🚨 WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Lionel Messi will NOT leave Barcelona, we can confirm.
We sat down with the man himself to clarify some things 🐐
This is what he had to say: pic.twitter.com/NfnhGpZpXc
– Goal (@goal) September 4, 2020
Hard with the club president
The 33-year-old bases his ambitions to win the most important trophies on why he wanted to leave Barcelona, especially the Champions League.
– You have to fight. At least join the fight and don’t collapse like we did in Rome, Liverpool and Lisbon. All that led me to that decision, continues the Argentine.
– I thought and was sure I could go. The president has always said that after the season I could choose if I want to stay or not, Messi is quoted.
At all times, the much-discussed clause in Messi’s contract has been an issue: it said that he could leave the club for free on June 10, that is, after the original season. But when the season was postponed due to the coronavirus, Messi’s squad believed that the clause was still in force.
– Now they insist that I did not say it until June 10, although we continue to fight in La Liga on June 10. And that’s why I’m still in the club. Now I will continue at the club because the president told me that the only way I could go was if someone paid the clause of 700 million euros, and that this is impossible, says Messi.
HARD PRESSURE: The president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu, is a very unpopular man among many in Barcelona. In March, there is a new presidential election in the club. Photo: Albert Gea
It was long speculated whether the 33-year-old would take the club to court due to the contract dispute. It was never relevant, he explains.
– I would never go to the court against Barcelona, because it is a club that I love. It is the club in my heart, and my whole life has been here. That was never my mind.
– It should go pretty well
Simen Stamsø-Møller, TV 2 soccer expert, is happy that Messi is staying.
– My football romance likes older players to stay where they are, and there is something nice about players who are at the same club for as long as possible. At the same time, it was easy to understand why he wanted to leave. There are many things that are not right and are not corrected in some way. Barcelona will not look at a transfer window or a couple of years. It will be extremely difficult to get a team in a few years that is as good as it once was. Then a proper major cleaning is needed, says Stamsø-Møller.
MEETINGS: Jorge Messi, the player’s father and representative, was surrounded when he arrived in Barcelona to meet with the club’s president earlier this week. Photo: Nacho Doce
He is happy that Messi does not want to take Barcelona to court and that the saga of the transition is over now.
– I like that he chooses a different path than would end an ugly case between two parties who actually have a lot to thank each other for. There is no reason for it to be hateful. So it is logical to think that it may already be within a year, but we will have to wait and see. A lot can happen in that moment, and suddenly you feel happier than you are now, says Stamsø-Møller.
Stamsø-Møller believes that Messi’s return to first-team training will not be problematic.
– It is not only Messi who has been open to poor performance. Several important players, both Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets, have been clear that Barcelona is nowhere near where it should be. I think he has so much respect in that group of players that it should work smoothly, he says.
– The fans are also at war
The last 24 hours have been on the billboards that Messi came to announce that he will follow. Mina Finstad Berg, TV 2 expert, predicted that the Argentine would leave a week ago.
– In recent days, things have changed in the opposite direction, and there has been a lot of uncertainty associated with the clause and what Barcelona could demand. The clause is pretty obvious that no club in the world could pay, says Mina Finstad Berg, TV 2 soccer expert.
– He gets tough with the club’s management, and it has been quite obvious that he is not satisfied with Bartomeu. There are a few others too, including followers. That is also the reason why Messi has not lost himself in the eyes of the fans, because they too are at war with Bartomeu, says Finstad Berg.
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