Official: Lionel Messi confirms he will stay at Barcelona

Lionel Messi has confirmed he’ll see out the rest of his contract at Barcelona and revealed the sorrow of his decision to leave.

The entire football world was left stunned when Messi handed in a transfer request last month to Barcelona, planning to exploit a clause in his contract that would make it void this summer.

But Josep Maria Bartomeu rejected his request by claiming the option expired on June 10. And while Messi and his legal team argued coronavirus enforced break on the season altered the expiration date, the Barcelona president stood firm.

This led the Argentine with two unfavorable choices left in either seeing out the remaining 10 months on his contract or hope an interested club activates his €700m buyout clause.

But rather than take his beloved club to court, he accepted staying until his contract expires in June 2021 was best.

Speaking for the very first time on his decision to leave for free this summer, Messi told Goal: “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.

“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.”

🚨 WORLD EXCLUSIVE 🚨

Lionel Messi will NOT be leaving Barcelona, we can confirm.

We sat down with the man himself to clear up a few things 🐐

Here's what he had to say: pic.twitter.com/NfnhGpZpXc

— Goal (@goal) September 4, 2020

He added: “There was another way and it was to go to trial.

“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.”

The 33-year-old, who has been associated with Barca for two decades, also opened up on the toll his decision took on those dearest to him and what drove him to make it.

“When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama,” admitted Messi.

“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.”