A very emotional Lionel Messi gave a press conference on Sunday where he spoke about him leaving Barcelona.
Lionel Messi did not get the ending he deserved at Barcelona. No Camp Nou chanting his name, no final match in front of a crowd. Instead, it was a press conference with a few journalists, family and team mates.
The club’s greatest ever player has left and speaking with tears in his eyes, here are some snippets of what Messi had to say:
“Today, I have to say goodbye to all of this. We did everything we could because I wanted to stay. Last year I didn’t want to stay and I said it. This year I wanted to stay and I couldn’t.”
Messi was asked about the possibility of him joining PSG:
“It’s a possibility (PSG) to reach those heights but at the minute I have nothing confirmed with anyone. When the press release was published, I got a lot of calls, a lot of clubs were interested. At the minute, I have nothing closed, we are talking about a lot of things.”
On if this is the most difficult moment of his career:
“Yeah, without doubt (it’s the most difficult time of his sporting career). I’ve had a lot of difficult moments, tough moments, a lot of defeats but in the end, the other day, not going back to train, not going back to the pitch, this is the end.
“I’m very sad, I did not want to leave this club because it’s the club that I love.”
He was also asked about the picture of himself alongside Angel Di Maria, Leandro Paredes, Neymar and Marco Veratti in Ibiza from a few days ago:
“Yeah, completely (coincidence). I met them in Ibiza, we got together one day, we are friends. He (Neymar) called me and said I’m in Ibiza, we’ll get together… And there was a joke at the time, come to Paris. But it was a joke.”
And finally, Messi commented on the trophies won while revealing that he agreed to lower his salary:
“I would have liked to have won another Champions League. We got eliminated in the semi finals vs. Liverpool. We got to a semi final with Pep. […] I’m of the opinion that we could have gotten one more. I have achieved my objectives.
“I offered to reduce my contract by 50% and they asked for nothing else. The news of me asking 30% more is a lie. A lot of what people are saying are not true.”
Wise words indeed! And nicely Posted too ! I totally agree with u on this 100%!
Let’s hope LEO will have more year’s to play with our beloved Albiceleste and win us the WC as that he truly deserves as do the whole country of Argentina and everyone around the world who is only supporting our beloved Albiceleste !
I honestly think there is a ton of politics going on with Barcelona. I do believe they wanted Messi out and a lot of factors played in this (finances, Covid).
For the last several years, you can tell that they wanted to transition from Messi because he became bigger than the club itself with too much influence over fans. When presidents have to step down because of a player, the club had to think in terms of the future. They spent foolish money on player salary (Greizman, Dembele, Coutinho), questionable signings (Paulinho, Kevin Prince Boateng, Braithwaite – never a Barca type player), and stupid coaching hires – Koeman disrespected Messi’s history in the club the day he was signed and he wants to build a Netherlands/Barca team as much as he is allowed. Selling Suarez was done in order to isolate Messi’s influence even more as Suarez wouldn’t care to say out loud what he was thinking. This is all politics. In the last 4-5 years, Barcelona has managed the club like amateurs. This is no fluke or mistake. They are afraid of fan protests like in 2020 when Messi wanted to leave because they lied to him about signing players around him. They almost always negotiate contracts within two years of expiry. I will say that it is slightly Messi’s fault as well, but I understand that he wanted to know if Barca has had a project since 2020 and wanted to know what the club planned to do – he is owed this after what he gave to the club, but business people are always sharks and he will always be only the businesses greatest gladiator. Ultimately Barca used this as a way to pin it on La Liga even though they knew the financial regulations ahead of time. La Liga is a scapegoat. This is how big teams treat their superstars. Real Madrid did it Raul, Iker Casillas, and even Ronaldo said he wanted to stay but was lied to regarding promises by Florentino Perez.
This was a play so that Barcelona can move on and build a team for the future without fan uproar. The good thing is Messi can now take it easy for the World Cup and build chemistry with NT players in PSG.
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