Messi to stay at Barcelona for one more year
In an interview with Goal. com, Barcelona star forward Lionel Messi announced that he will be staying with Barcelona for another year.
Messi informed that he feels betrayed by what Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has always been saying to him regarding his clause in his contract.
"I thought and was sure that I was free to leave, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not," he said.
"Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before June 10, when it turns out that on June 10 we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season.
"And this is the reason why I am going to continue in the club. Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the €700 million (£624m/$823m) clause, and that this is impossible."
Messi shocked the footballing world on August 25 when he informed Barcelona through a burofax about his intentions to leave the club. Messi's decision came after Barcelona completed a trophyless season -- for the first time since 2007-2008 -- that ended with a humiliating 8-2 defeat to German champions Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinal in Lisbon on August 14. But the Argentine said it was not only the Bayern result that triggered his decision.
"When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama," Messi told Goal.
"The whole family began crying, my children did not want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools.
"But I looked further afield and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. You can win or lose in it, because it is very difficult, but you have to compete.
"At least compete for it and let us not fall apart in Rome, Liverpool, Lisbon. All that led me to think about that decision that I wanted to carry out.
"Of course I had a hard time deciding. It does not come from the Bayern result, it comes from many things," he stressed.
"I always said I wanted to end here and I always said I wanted to stay here. That I wanted a winning project and to win titles with the club, to continue expanding the legend of Barcelona.
"And the truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time, they juggle and cover holes as things go by. As I said before, I always thought about the welfare of my family and the club," explained Messi his reasons behind wanting to leave Barcelona.
Messi also said that he had been wanting to leave the club for a year now and has been communicating with the club about it. But with no response from the club, Messi finally wanted to make it official through a burofax.
"I told the club, including the president, that I wanted to go. I've been telling him that all year. I believed it was time to step aside," Messi told Goal.
"I believed that the club needed more young players, new players and I thought my time in Barcelona was over. I felt 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 ambitions.
"It did not come because of the Champions League result against Bayern, no – I had been thinking about the decision for a long time.
"Sending the burofax was making it official that I wanted to go and that I was free and the optional year – I was not going to use it and I wanted to go.
"It was not to make a mess, or to go against the club, but the way to make it official because my decision had been made."
Messi could still have gotten what he wanted -- at least he could have fought for it. But he would have to take Barcelona to court to make that happen. And Messi, who has been a part of the Catalan club for 20 seasons -- 17 of them in the first team -- did not want to take that route as he mentioned that it never even crossed his mind to drag Barcelona to court.
"There was another way and it was to go to trial," he added. "I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived.
"It is the club of my life, I have made my life here.
"Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything. I know that it never crossed my mind to take Barca to court."
Messi also explained how traumatizing it was for his family to accept the fact that he and his family will be leaving Barcelona. But Messi thought it was something that still needed to be done as it would have been 'good for everyone'.
"I love Barcelona and I'm not going to find a better place than here anywhere. Still, I have the right to decide. I was going to look for new goals and new challenges. And tomorrow I could go back, because here in Barcelona I have everything.
"My son, my family, they grew up here and are from here. There was nothing wrong with wanting to leave. I needed it, the club needed it and it was good for everyone.
"My wife, with all the pain of her soul, supported and accompanied me."
It has now been made clear by Messi that he will be staying with Barcelona for at least till the end of next season. But it is quite clear that the Argentine, for the first time in his 20-year career at Barcelona, is rather being forced to stay with the club.
Messi, who has missed Barcelona's PCR tests last Sunday and the ensuing training sessions ahead of the new season due to his dispute with the club, will now be preparing to start the new season under newly appointed coach Ronald Koeman.
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