REPORTAGE
The announcement made the football world tremble and since then all Barça fans have been in tears. Lionel Messi has chosen to leave his lifelong club this summer. The 33-year-old "Pulga" does not want to extend his career in Catalonia, where he was trained and where he won 33 titles, including four Champions Leagues. A competition that Barcelona have not won since 2015 and from which the Argentine was eliminated in the quarter-finals this year, humiliated by Bayern's Lewandowski 8-2. "It is the saddest day and the ugliest day in the history of Barça," lamented a journalist from Spanish radio on Tuesday evening, when the news spread through the streets of Barcelona.
>> READ ALSO - Spain: Lionel Messi communicated to FC Barcelona his desire to leave the club
A long legal battle will begin
The six-fold Golden Ball, arrived as a teenager in Catalonia, plunged into astonishment Jordi Sant, responsible for the animation of the stands at Camp Nou, the stadium of the Blaugrana club. "I am in shock !" he said at the microphone of Europe 1. "I could never have imagined that the best player in the world would communicate by a simple fax his desire to leave the club", explains Jordi Sant.
Because, in his contract, Messi has a clause that he has just activated and which allows him to leave at the end of each season. Rumors were circulating in recent days about a possibility of leaving Barça at the simple end of the contract in June 2021, due to deep disagreements with the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu. Messi should have activated his clause before June, so several weeks ago, but the consequences of the health crisis decided otherwise, he pleads with the club. Barcelona management does not want to let the best player in the world go free: a long legal battle will therefore begin between the two parties.
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Fans criticize club management
But the supporters seem to have chosen their camp. In the evening, Barça fans chanted their anger at Camp Nou against a management unable to convince Messi to end his season in Catalonia. "This direction sucks ... the worst in Barça history!" loose Angel at the microphone of Europe 1.
️ Los aficionados del @FCBarcelona se agolpan a las puertas del Camp Nou
️ Protestan al grito de "Bartomeu dimisión" y "directiva dimisión"
️ @ victor_nahe # PartidazoMessipic.twitter.com / IXZSRqM6d7
After the shock of the announcement of his desire elsewhere, he understands Messi. According to him, the Argentine wants to leave because the team is no longer at the level. "He's not happy anymore! He's a certain age and he sees that it gets complicated to win the Champions League, and he's going to win it, explains Angel. At the moment, we don't know where wants to leave Lionel Messi, but several tracks exist: Manchester City, Inter Milan, and why not ... Paris Saint-Germain.