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Lionel Messi has admitted that the unrest between him and Barcelona over his attempt to leave the club in the summer affected his form at the start of this season, in which he has recorded his fewest goals and assists in 13 years.
Messi caused consternation in August when he sent the club a burofax (statement) expressing his desire to move on, but Josep Maria Bartomeu, the club’s president at the time, blocked the move and the Argentine vowed to stay this season to avoid a battle. legal. . He has less than seven months left on his contract and he can negotiate with other clubs from January.
“Everything that happened before the summer, how the season ended, then the burofax and everything else … I dragged everything a bit at the beginning of the season,” Messi said in an interview with the Spanish television channel La Sexta. “The truth is that right now I feel good, but in the summer I had a very bad time.”
Messi scored for the 643rd time for Barça on Saturday to equal Pelé’s record for goals for a single club. But he has underperformed dramatically this season, as has his team, which is eight points behind La Liga leaders Atlético de Madrid.
Messi, who finished as the top scorer in La Liga last season and routinely scores more than 40 goals each year for his club, has scored just nine times in all competitions, five from the penalty spot. He is without assists in 13 league games after contributing 21 last season, making the start of this season the worst since the 2007-08 season when he was 20 years old and suffered injuries.
Barcelona face an election on January 24 to choose the successor to Bartomeu, who resigned in October, and Messi remained tight-lipped on where his future lay, saying he was fully focused on helping his team get back on track. shape. “Right now I feel good and I’m looking forward to fighting for all the competitions that lie ahead,” he said.
“I know that the club is in a difficult moment at the institutional level and on the pitch and everything that surrounds Barça right now is complicated, but I’m excited.”
