Things looked bleak for Barcelona when their devastating 8-2 loss to Bayern in the Champions League was immediately followed by news of Messi’s intention to leave, but now he is looking to stay in Spain for a while.
Messi decided to stay at Barcelona
Leo Messi shocked the football world when he told Barcelona that he wanted to leave, but the talismanic striker has now made a U-turn and decided to stay at the beloved Camp Nou. Things looked bleak for Barcelona when their devastating 8-2 loss to Bayern in the Champions League was immediately followed by news of Messi’s intention to leave, but now he is looking to stay in Spain for a while. Messi decided to stay at Barcelona because club president Josep Bartomeu told him that he could leave the only way he paid the €700 million release clause. The club refused to acknowledge his contract’s break, which allowed him to go for free unilaterally, so a fight began, where Messi tried to find a way out.
Leo would never go to court against Barca.
However, the forward now accepted he should stay at the Camp Nou to avoid being forced to court, but only after a particularly devastating few weeks where he looked confident he should leave. “Now I’m going to continue at the club because the president said to me that the only way to leave is to pay the €700 million clause and that this is impossible,” Messi told reporters. “I will continue at Barça, and my attitude will not change, no matter how much I want to go. There was another way, and it was in court.
I would never go to court against Barça because this is the club that I love, that has given me everything since I arrived, this is the club of my life, I made my life here. Barca gave me everything, and I gave it all. I know I have never had to take Barça to court.”
The Argentine believed the clause would allow him to terminate the deal.
Although his contract expires in 2021, Messi and his legal team believed the clause would allow him to terminate the deal unilaterally – allowing him to leave for free before it was over. Messi sent Barcelona Burofax outlining his wishes to retire before the Champions League final, but the club said the clause’s application is null and void as it did not send it until June 10th. “As I said, I thought and was sure that I could leave, the president always said that I could decide whether I stay or not at the end of the season,” Messi said. “Now they cling to the fact that I said this not earlier than June 10th, when it turns out that on June 10th, we were competing for LaLiga amid this terrible coronavirus and this disease has been changing all season.”
Lionel is disappointed with the team’s recent setbacks
Messi wanted to leave Barcelona because he was disappointed with the team’s recent setbacks, disappointed with the club’s future, and was not convinced that the squad was building towards a forward-looking vision. His relationship with Bartomeu has grown increasingly tense lately, frustrated with his idea of the side and his management of the club. It was an incredibly difficult time for the club as Barcelona failed to win any titles in 2019-20 amid a humiliating Champions League exits. There was news that Messi was informing Barcelona of his desire to leave after the embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Still, the Argentina superstar stressed that his decision to leave was not precipitated by defeat – and that he had long experienced an alarm from the club.
“I told the club, including the president, that I wanted to go and I told him this all year. I thought it was time to step aside,” Messi said. “So, I thought the club needed more young players, new players, and I thought that my time at Barcelona is over. I was very sorry because I always said that I wanted to end my career here. It was a tough year. I suffered a lot both in training and in games and the dressing room. Everything became very difficult for me and the time came when I started thinking about looking for new ambitions. It didn’t come from the Champions League result against Bayern. No – I had been thinking about the decision for a long time.
I told the president and, well, the president always said that I could decide if I want to go or want to stay at the end of the season, and in the end, he did not keep his word.”