Football: Lionel Messi remains at FC Barcelona
Messi ultimately remains at FC Barcelona.
AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
After communicating to FC Barcelona his desire to leave the club on August 25, star striker Lionel Messi announced to sports media Goal on Friday August 4 his decision to stay for the 2020-2021 season.
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It is the end of a long soap opera that kept the football planet in suspense for ten days.
Lionel Messi finally revealed to
Goal
his decision to stay at FC Barcelona.
A long-awaited outcome, and already presented by the Argentinian media.
In this interview, published Friday August 4, Lionel Messi discusses the reasons that may have motivated
his desire to leave the club
: “
I told management that I wanted to leave, throughout the season.
I think that was the moment, that the club needed younger people and I thought I had finished my cycle here.
This season has been very complicated, in training, on the field, in the locker room.
"
“
I always said I wanted to end my career here, fighting for titles.
But the truth is that there has been no project for a long time.
Every year, they make the proud but every year, we tinker
”, he explained, titillating in passing the president of the club, Josep Maria Bartomeu.
🚨 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
Earlier today, his father and manager Jorge issued a statement claiming his son could go free, denying the legality of his € 700 million release clause.
Arguments refuted by La Liga, which had already sided with the club blaugrana.
Humiliated by a trying season which reached its climax with a terrible defeat in the quarterfinals of the Champions League
against Bayern Munich (2-8)
, the Argentinian had expressed his wish to leave his club ten years ago. days.
If this announcement is a relief for the supporters and the club, it remains to be seen what will be his attitude towards Ronald Koeman, the new coach of Barça, whose positions in mid-August accelerated the desire for the departure of the number 10.
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