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Lionel Messi’s grudging acceptance that he will have to stay in Barcelona after losing his showdown with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu has left the Argentine superstar’s future still in doubt.
The 33-year-old, who was absent from Barcelona training on Saturday the day after announcing that he would begrudgingly staying at the club, launched a harsh attack on Bartomeu claiming he had broken his word to let him go.
The absence of a new contract means that even if he is not allowed to leave this summer, Messi could enter into negotiations with other teams starting on January 1 and leave for free when his current contract expires in July.
The feeling that Messi’s reluctance was by no means the end of the matter was evident in the headline of the Spanish newspaper Marca: “Messi stays, the crisis too.”
Bartomeu could still respond with his resignation, having previously indicated that he would resign if Messi said publicly that he was the problem and agreed to stay.
“It’s been a long time since there was a project or something like that,” Messi said in what another sports daily Mundo Deportivo described as his “devastating” interview with Goal on Friday.
“They’re always juggling and plugging holes.”
Messi believed he had a clause in his contract that meant he could leave for free at the end of last season, but Barca said that option expired on June 10.
“The president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to leave or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not keep his word,” Messi said.
“And this is the reason why I will continue at the club … because the president told me that the only way out was to pay the termination clause of 700 million euros.”
He described it as “impossible”, adding that he could never bring “the club I love” onto the pitch.
Messi did not show up at Barça’s Joan Gamper training complex for Saturday’s training that was attended by players like Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba and Philippe Coutinho.
According to local media, you must first pass the Covid-19 test that was deliberately missed last Sunday with a return to the team possibly on Monday.
He could then feature in new coach Ronald Koeman’s first game, a friendly against third-division Nastic on September 12.
Barcelona responded to Messi’s promise by posting a photo of the striker on Instagram wearing the club’s new kit, with the caption: “I’m going to do my best. My love for Barça will never change ”.
Messi had applied to leave the club he joined as a child following Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, with Manchester City backed by Abu Dhabi as favorites to sign him.
His lawyers sent Barça a burofax on August 25 indicating his intention to leave, but Messi insisted that he had made his feelings clear to Bartomeu long before.
“I told the club, especially the president, that I wanted to go,” Messi said. “I’ve been telling you all year. I thought it was time to step aside.
“I thought the club needed more young people, new people and I thought my time in Barcelona was over, feeling very sorry because I always said that I wanted to finish my career here.
“It was a very difficult year, I suffered a lot in training, in games and in the dressing room. Everything became very difficult for me and there came a time when I considered looking for new goals, new horizons.
“It was not because of the result of the Champions League against Bayern, I had been thinking about it for a long time. I told the president and the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not end up keeping his word ”.
Barcelona ended the season without a trophy for the first time since 2008, which also extended Messi’s failed streak in the Champions League to five years.
He has scored 634 goals and has won 34 titles with the club he joined at age 13 and where he passed through the ranks of La Masia.
Despite his discontent at having to stay, the Argentine insists he will give everything for the team next season with Koeman, who is trying to reform the squad.
“I will continue at Barça and my attitude will not change, no matter how much I have wanted to go,” said Messi.
“There is a new coach and a new idea. That’s good, but then we have to see how the team responds and if that means we can compete or not. What I can say is that I’m staying and I’m going to do my best ”.
