‘It was a brutal drama’
WHY IT TOOK SO LONG TO BREAK HIS SILENCE:
First, because the defeat in Lisbon [8-2 loss in the Champions League to Bayern Munich] was very hard. We knew they were a very difficult opponent, but we didn't know that we were going to end that way, giving such a poor image for Barcelona. We gave a very bad image. It was wrong, I did not feel like anything. I wanted time to pass and then go out to clarify everything.
WHY HE WANTED TO LEAVE BARCELONA:
It was not because of the Bayern result, it comes from many things. I always said I wanted to end here. I wanted a winning project and to win titles with the club and continue expanding the legend of Barcelona. The truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time, they juggle and cover holes as things go by.
It has hurt me a lot that things were published against me and above all, that false things are published. That they thought I could go to trial against Barca in order to benefit. I would never do such a thing. I repeat, I wanted to go and it was my right, because the contract said that I could be released. And it's not 'I'm leaving and that's it'. I was leaving and it cost me a lot. I wanted to go because I was thinking of living my last years of football happily.
I looked further and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. You can win or lose it, because it is very difficult, but you have to compete. At least compete and let things like Rome [3-0 loss at home that saw them exit the Champions League in the quarterfinal in 2017/18 due to an aggregate tie of 4-4], Liverpool [4-0 loss at Anfield in the Champions League semifinal in 2018/19 that undid all their hard work for a 3-0 win in the reverse leg] not happen to us… things like Lisbon.
THE BUILD-UP TO THE BUROFAX:
I told the club, especially the president [Josep Maria Bartomeu], that I wanted to go. I've been telling him all year. He believed it was time to step aside. I believed that the club needed more young people and I thought my time in Barcelona was over, feeling 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 goals, new places. It was not because of the Champions League result against Bayern. I had been pondering the decision for a long time. I told the president and the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not end up keeping his word.
The burofax was to make it official in some way. Throughout the year I had been telling the president that I wanted to go, that the time had come to seek new directions in my career. He told me all the time: 'We'll talk, no, this and that,' but nothing.. Sending the burofax was making it official that I wanted to go and that I was free and I was not going to use the optional year. It was not to make a mess, or to go against the club.
HIS LOVE FOR BARCELONA AND HOW IT FELT WHEN IT WAS DOUBTED:
I did feel hurt by things that I heard from people questioning my love for Barcelona and saying things that I think I didn't deserve. It also helped me to see who is who. This world of football that is very difficult and there are many very false people. This has happened has helped me to recognize many false people. It hurt me when my love for this club was questioned. No matter how much I go or stay, my love for Barca will never change.
I love Barcelona and I'm not going to be better than here anywhere else. Still I have the right to decide. I was going to look for new goals and new challenges. And tomorrow I could have come back, because here in Barcelona I have everything. My son, my family, grew up here and are from here. There is nothing wrong with leaving. I needed it, the club needed it and it was good for everyone.
HIS REPLY TO PEOPLE SAYING HE ONLY WANTED MORE MONEY:
I always put the club before anything else. I had the possibility of leaving Barça many times. The money? Every year I was able to leave and earn more money than at Barcelona. I always said that this was my home and it was what I felt and feel. Better than here it is difficult. I felt that I needed a change and new goals, new things.
HOW HIS FAMILY REACTED
When I communicated this to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama. The whole family crying, my children did not want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools.
All this time it has been hard for everyone. He [his father Jorge] was clear about what he wanted and said. My wife with all the pain of her soul supported and accompanied me.
Mateo is still young and he doesn't realize what it means to go somewhere else and make your life for a few years elsewhere. Thiago yes, he is bigger. He heard something on TV and found out something and asked. I didn't want to know anything about being able to leave, having to live in a new school or make new friends. He cried to me and said "let's not go", I repeat that it was hard, really. It was understandable. It happened to me. It is very difficult to make a decision.
ON THE JUNE 10 DEADLINE
We go back to the beginning. I thought and we were sure that I was free. The president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not. Now, they cling to the fact that I did not say it before June 10 even though on June 10 June we were competing for the league in the middle of this coronavirus pandemic which altered all the dates.
What they say is that I did not send it before June 10, but I repeat, we were in the middle of all the competitions and it was not the moment. But apart from that, the president always told me 'when the season is over, you decide if you stay or leave', he never set a date.
WHY HE HAS DECIDED TO CONTINUE AND WHAT THAT MEANS:
I am going to continue at the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700 million clause; that is impossible. And then another was to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, that gave me everything since I arrived, it is the club of my life, I have made my life here.
I am going to continue at Barça and my attitude is not going to change no matter how much I have wanted to go. I will do my best. I always want to win, I'm competitive and I don't like to lose anything. I always want the best for the club, for the dressing room and for myself. I said at the time that it was not allowing us to win the Champions League. Actually, now I don't know what will happen. There is a new coach and a new idea. That's good, but then we have to see how the team responds and whether or not it will give us to compete. What I can say is that I'm staying and I'm going to give my best.
REACTIONS AS MESSI REVERSES HIS DECISION
No smile, no handshake and no reconciliation. Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona but this was no happy ending. It is over, for now, yet there is no real closure and no one truly got what they wanted, maybe not even Josep Maria Bartomeu. A survivor clinging to power, he will no longer preside over the departure of the best player in the club's history but nor will he evade responsibility for it. His victory, if that is what this was, is hollow one. Messi made sure of that.
--- Sid Lowe ,The Guardian's La Liga correspondent.
There is only one thing worse than Messi leaving, and that is Messi staying under these conditions. After the first draw all the seams of a forced agreement will burst.
-- Jorge Valdano, former Argentina international and ex-Real Madrid player.
Lionel Messi changes direction more gracefully than any footballer who ever lived but it was a clunking U-turn that led him to stay at Barcelona, at least for one more season."
--- Matt Dickinson, The Times.
If he can stay for one more year and we can make the most of him and go see him play at the stadium, for me it's very positive.
-- 31-year-old
Barcelona fan Oriol Vives.
I think it's good he isn't leaving but with all the mess he has created, to be honest, it is not good for Barcelona because he doesn't give the impression he wants to play for the team.
--- 24-year-old Barca fan Sergi Roda.
Messi cannot be captain now!
---Tweeted the Spanish
TV channel El Chiringuito
Comments