Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona! So here we picked the top 5 quotes from his blockbuster interview with Goal over his future.
Messi will remain at Barcelona for at least one more season, despite handing in a shock transfer request in late August.
The Argentine pulled out all the stops to force a clause that would his contract go through, beginning a long dispute with Barcelona that ended with him skipping pre-season training.
His father and agent, Jorge, even jetted in to handle the crisis talks this week but to no avail.
Barcelona were having none of it and refused to allow their captain to leave for free this summer. Therefore, Messi has chosen to stay rather than take the club to an ugly court battle.
So here we give you five takeaways from the star’s telling interview with Goal on Friday evening.
No happiness
The idea of Messi leaving Barcelona once seemed unimaginable, but cracks have shown in the last few years suggesting all may not be sound, which Messi himself confirmed in his interview.
“I wanted to go because I thought about living my last years of football happily. Lately, I have not found happiness within the club. I will continue at Barca and my attitude will not change no matter how much I have wanted to go. I will do my best.”
Frustrations with Setien?
There were signs of discontent in the Barcelona squad with manager Quique Setien last season. Several first-team players allegedly felt he wasn’t up for the job, holding him and his backroom staff responsible for Barca’s poor form.
Messi then publicly contradicted Setien’s comments that Real Madrid’s LaLiga title win was down to their hard work by claiming Barcelona’s failings ‘really helped’ Los Blancos to the crown.
And Messi’s comments on how he ‘suffered’ in training and the dressing room last season implied further dissent during Setien’s reign.
“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.”
Rome, Liverpool, Lisbon…in that order
2015 was the last time Messi lifted the Champions League and a string of unwelcome setbacks set the tone in the following years.
Barcelona blew three-goal aggregate leads against AS Roma (2017/18) and Liverpool (2018/19) in the Champions League semi-finals to bow out of the competition. They were both a bitter pill to swallow for Messi.
Those defeats, on top of the 8-2 thumping to Bayern Munich last August, were a turning point in his decision.
“I looked further afield, 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 the decision that I wanted to carry out.”
Bartomeu’s failed promise
Josep Maria Bartomeu’s reputation as Barcelona president is at rock bottom. Fans want him out and several respected figures are plotting to overthrow him in the upcoming presidential elections in March 2021.
Messi’s departure this summer would’ve been the final nail in his coffin as the far as his reign at Barcelona would’ve been concerned.
But while Bartomeu stood firm and held on to arguably the greatest player in the club’s history, his relationship with Messi is beyond repair by any means.
“It [the decision to leave] did not come because of the Champions League result against Bayern Munich. No, I had been thinking about the decision for a long time. I told the president and, well, 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 keep his word.”
Time for Messi to step aside?
There have been suggestions that Messi’s possible exit could do Barcelona more good than harm. Take his huge wage bill off the table and give more responsibility to younger players left some people wondering.
And it appears Messi may have been thinking along the same lines.
“I told the club, including the president, that I wanted to go. I’ve been telling him that all year. 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.”
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