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MADRID: Lionel Messi’s former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique, now Spain’s coach, suggested on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) that the club should have allowed the Argentine forward to leave.
“It is a sensitive issue,” said Luis Enrique, ahead of Spain’s match against Ukraine on Sunday (Monday in Manila).
“I think the clubs are above all the players. Barcelona was founded in 1899 and is one of the best in the world, it has always won titles.
“Clearly there has been a wonderful relationship. Leo has made Barça grow exponentially but I would have liked it much more if an agreement had been reached ”.
Luis Enrique managed Messi at Barça from 2014 to 2017 and they won the treble together in 2015.
And he added: “Sooner or later Messi will stop playing at Barça. The club will continue to win titles without Messi, just as Messi will remain wonderful for many years if he leaves.
Messi’s grudging acceptance that he will have to sit still after losing his showdown with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu means his long-term future is still in doubt.
The 33-year-old was absent from training on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
Other players such as Jordi Alba and Philippe Coutinho arrived at the session, but Messi did not show up at the Joan Gamper complex for the session that began at 07:30 GMT.
Last Sunday Messi deliberately skipped the mandatory coronavirus test. You need to pass the test before joining the Ronald Koeman team for their next session on Monday.
The team’s first pre-season friendly will be against third-division Nastic on September 12.
Messi announced on Friday that he would be reluctant to stay and launched a heavy 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 negotiate with other teams from January 1 and leave for free when his current contract expires in July.
The feeling that Messi’s decision did not mean the end of the matter was clear in the headline of the Marca newspaper: “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 at all,” Messi said in what another sports daily Mundo Deportivo described as his “devastating” interview with the Goal website 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.
700 million euro clause
“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.
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. “
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, he insists that he will give his all for the team next season with Koeman, who is trying to reform the team.
“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 ”.
