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BARCELONA: Lionel Messi, frustrated, said he is tired of being blamed for problems at Barcelona after Antoine Griezmann’s former agent accused him of making life difficult for the French forward at the La Liga club.
Eric Olhats had accused Messi of having too much control at the club, saying that his “reign of terror” had made it difficult for Griezmann to adjust since his arrival last year.
Messi returned to Barcelona from his international duty with Argentina on Wednesday when he was approached by journalists at the airport.
“The truth is that I am a little tired of always being the problem of everything at the club,” Messi told the Spanish media.
“On top of that, after a 15-hour flight, I had the tax authorities waiting for me. It’s crazy.”
With one year remaining on his contract, Messi tried to activate a disputed clause to leave Barcelona for free in the offseason, but ultimately decided to stay because he did not want to face a legal battle with the club.
Barcelona have been in crisis since Bayern Munich humiliated the Spanish team 8-2 in the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season. The club’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, resigned last month before a vote of no confidence.
Messi has also had his run-ins with the Spanish tax authorities in recent years.
In 2016, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of two million euros ($ 2.37 million) for defrauding the Spanish government of 4.2 million euros from the income obtained from image rights. .
However, the 33-year-old did not serve his sentence after changing his sentence to a fine of 250,000 euros, since in Spain defendants without prior conviction can serve any sentence of less than two years on probation.
(US $ 1 = 0.8442 euros)
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; edited by Kim Coghill)
