[ad_1]
Lionel Messi mentioned he’ll keep at Barcelona however solely as a result of the membership’s president Josep Maria Bartomeu broke his phrase to let him go away. Messi’s stinging assault on Bartomeu and the membership means his future nonetheless stays doubtful. Even if he isn’t allowed to go this summer season, 33-year-old Messi can negotiate with different groups from January 1 and go away without spending a dime when his contract expires in July. Bartomeu might but reply along with his resignation, having beforehand indicated he would step down if Messi publicly mentioned he was the issue and agreed to remain.
“It has been a long time since there has been a project or anything at all,” Messi mentioned in an explosive interview with Goal.
“They are always juggling and plugging gaps.”
Messi believed he had a clause in his contract that meant he might go away without spending a dime on the finish of final season however Barca mentioned that possibility expired on June 10.
“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 didn’t end up keeping his word,” Messi mentioned.
“And this is the reason why 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-euro release clause.
“This is unattainable, after which the opposite manner was to go to trial. I might by no means go to courtroom in opposition to Barca as a result of it’s the membership that I really like, that gave me every thing since I arrived, it’s the membership of my life, I’ve made my life right here.”
Barcelona responded to Messi’s pledge by posting a picture of the striker on Instagram in the club’s new kit, with the caption: “I’m going to provide my greatest. My love for Barca won’t ever change”.
Messi had requested to leave the club he joined as a boy following Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, with Manchester City the favourites to sign him.
His lawyers sent Barca a burofax on August 25 stating his intention to depart but Messi says he made his feelings clear to Bartomeu long before.
“I informed the membership, particularly the president, that I wished to go,” said Messi. “I’ve been telling him all yr. I believed it was time to step apart.
“Everything became difficult”
“I believed that the club needed more young people, new 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 really troublesome yr, I suffered so much in coaching, in video games and within the dressing room. Everything turned very troublesome for me and there got here a time once I thought-about searching for new objectives, new horizons.
“It wasn’t because of the Champions League result against Bayern, I had been thinking about it 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.”
Barcelona ended the season with no trophy for the primary time since 2008, which additionally prolonged Messi’s unsuccessful run within the Champions League to 5 years.
He has scored 634 objectives and gained 34 titles with the membership that he joined as a 13-year-old and the place he got here by means of the ranks at La Masia.
Messi mentioned his determination to depart left his spouse and three sons distraught.
“When I told my family that I could go it was a drama,” he mentioned. “They all started crying.”
Despite his unhappiness at having to remain, the Argentinian insists he’ll give his all for the crew subsequent season beneath new coach Ronald Koeman, who’s making an attempt to overtake the squad.
“I am going to continue at Barca and my attitude is not going to change, no matter how much I have wanted to go,” Messi mentioned.
“I will do my best. I always want to win, I am competitive and I don’t like to lose ever.”
Messi was absent from pre-season coaching final week as he continued to attempt to power a transfer.
Promoted
“I said before we couldn’t win the Champions League. Now I don’t know what will happen,” he added.
“There is a new coach and a new idea. That’s good, but then we have to see how the team responds and if it means we can compete or not. What I can say is that I’m staying and I’m going to give my best.”
Topics talked about on this article
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink