Messi is looking for a proper farewell after being forced to stay with Barcelona
After the attempts of the Argentine magician Lionel Messi to leave his team Barcelona and force him to stay, it is possible that he will get a suitable farewell from the team.
The six-time Ballon d'Or winner tried to make his way out of the fortress (Camp) Nou after two decades with the Catalan giants, after another painful collapse in the Champions League.
Despite this, the club's management did not allow him to leave for free, and insisted that he obtain a penalty clause of 700 million euros ($ 828 million) to allow him to end his career with the team.
Messi expressed his frustration with the club in an interview with the international Goal site, explaining his anger at the lack of a project in Barcelona, and at the current club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Messi said that he was able to leave Barcelona at the end of the last season, but Bartomeu was not allowed to leave after he passed the specified date to leave the club for free on June 10, when football activity was suspended due to the new Corona virus pandemic.
Messi is now preparing for an additional season at the club, who defended his colors throughout his football career, as he hopes to achieve better results than last season, which ended with a terrible loss 2-8 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final.
Messi deserves a fitting conclusion after a wonderful era spent inside Barcelona's walls, which saw him crowned ten Spanish League titles, six Copa del Rey titles and four Champions League titles, among other titles.
The club management used the Dutch coach Ronald Koeman to revolutionize the team after the collapse he suffered under the leadership of his dismissed coach, Quique Setien, whose leadership Barcelona failed to retain the Spanish League title, which was crowned by traditional rivals Real Madrid.
Messi will now form part of the team's rebuilding process even if he reaches the age of 33 at the end of his career with Barcelona, and a new president may convince him to stay with the club's presidential elections scheduled for next March, but as of next January, Messi has the freedom to negotiate a move to Any other club, with its contract expiring in June 2021.
In the meantime, it will be the focus of the Koeman project, surrounded by young and exciting talents but still lacking the required experience such as Anso Fati, Francisco Trinkau and Pedri.
Messi's other colleagues and friends, such as Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal, are preparing to leave, in light of the austerity policy pursued by the club's management, which is trying to reduce players' salaries following the economic crisis caused by the Corona virus.
So next season is set to be a transitional season for the Catalans, but underpinned by the greatest player in the club's history, and the best goalscorer ever.
It may take Messi a few weeks to correct his situation after believing that he can move away from Barcelona, and revealing the losses that his decision left on his family before preventing him from leaving.
"When I told my wife and children that I wanted to leave, it was a cruel drama," Messi told Goal.com, "The whole family started crying, and my children don't want to leave Barcelona, and they don't want to change schools."
Messi added, "Despite this, I looked beyond that. I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, and compete in the Champions League, which you can win or lose, because it is a very difficult title, but you have to compete."
"At least it is competing for it, without collapsing, as happened to us in Rome, Liverpool and Seville. All this prompted me to think about the decision that I wanted to implement," Messi said.
These setbacks in the Champions League will affect Messi of course, and at the moment Barcelona seem to have little chance of European glory and a chance to win a continental title for the first time since 2015.
The big clubs on the whole continent seem very strong for Barcelona, who is currently in a state of chaos. At the sports and institutional levels.
Messi noted, "Of course I had a hard time making the decision. It did not come from the result of Bayern, it is a result of many things."
Messi assured, "I have always said that I want to finish my career here and I have always said that I want to stay here. I want a successful project and to win titles with the club, to continue to double the legend of Barcelona."
"The truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time," he said. "They are manipulating and covering holes wherever they go."
Forcing Messi to stay against his will is just another hole to be covered, but he at least gets an appropriate farewell opportunity, especially if fans are allowed to return to the stadiums at some point during the next season.
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