Footballer Lionel Messi not leaving Barcelona

MADRID: Six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi today (Friday) broke his silence about his future by saying he will remain with Barcelona for another year but only because he did not want to enter a court battle with the club.

“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,” he said in an interview with an international sports website.

The Argentina player told the club last month that he wanted to leave, insisting a clause in his contract allowed him to do so on a free transfer. Barcelona insisted that a 700 million euros ($824 million) release clause would have to be paid.

However, he admitted that he felt frustrated after a season that saw Barcelona fail to win a single trophy, and finished with a humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich.

“I wasn’t happy and I wanted to leave. I have not been allowed this in any way and I will stay at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute. The management of the club led by Bartomeu is a disaster,” Messi said.

He said, “Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything. 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.”

“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,” he added.

The Argentine added, “When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama. The whole family began crying, my children did not want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools.”

He also admitted that he has had chances to leave Barcelona in the past, but has continued with the club while continually turning down more lucrative offers from other sides.

“Every year I could have left and earned more money than in Barcelona. I always said that this was my home and it was what I felt and feel,” he concluded.