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MADRID: Lionel Messi returned to training with Barcelona on Monday, almost two weeks after he told the club he wanted to leave.
After reluctantly changing his mind, Messi returned to the team to prepare for the new season. The club said it practiced separately from the rest of the team because it still needed to undergo a second coronavirus test before meeting with its teammates.
Messi said last week that he was not happy with Barcelona, but would rather stay than fight a legal battle with the “club of his life”. Messi wanted to leave for free but the Catalan club said that the contractual clause he invoked had already expired, so he has to stay at least until the end of his contract in June 2021.
Messi told Barcelona that he wanted to leave on August 25 and had not shown up for the coronavirus tests required by the team a week ago. He also hadn’t shown up when his teammates resumed training last week.
The Spanish league begins this weekend, but Barcelona will not start their season until the end of the month with a home game against Villarreal.
Messi was one of the first to arrive at the team’s training center in Barcelona on Monday (Tuesday in Manila). He was expected to meet personally with incoming coach Ronald Koeman for the first time.
Koeman replaced Quique Setien after the team’s embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on August 14.
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