'Emotional' Lionel Messi confirms he will stay at Barcelona

Lionel Messi on Friday confirmed that he will continue his stay at Barcelona as he said that he doesn’t want to take the club he loves to the court. Messi, in an emotional interview, expressed how emotional was it when he told his wife and children that he wants to leave Barcelona.

Messi, earlier last week, had sent a burofax to Barcelona while requesting them to let him leave for free, as per a clause in his contract. However, Barcelona were adamant that the clause has expired and any club wanting to acquire Messi’s services will have to pay EUR 700 million release clause.

“When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama,” Messi told Goal.

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“The whole family began crying, my children did not want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools.

“But I looked further afield and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. You can win or lose in it, because it is very difficult, but you have to compete.

“At least compete for it and let us not fall apart in Rome, Liverpool, Lisbon. All that led me to think about that decision that I wanted to carry out.”

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Messi further said that Barcelona president always said that he can leave anytime he wanted but now they made a u-turn that the contract clause that allows him to leave expired on June 10.

“I thought and was sure that I was free to leave, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not,” he said.

“Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before June 10, when it turns out that on June 10 we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season.

“And this is the reason why I am going to continue in the club. Now 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 (£624m/$823m) clause, and that this is impossible.”

Messi said he could have gone to court and find a way out of the club but reiterated that he loves this club for everything it has given to him and will never take Barcelona to court.

“There was another way and it was to go to trial," he added. “I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived.

“It is the club of my life, I have made my life here.

“Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything. I know that it never crossed my mind to take Barca to court.”

The six-time Ballon d’Or further explained how his family reacted upon hearing that he wanted to leave Barcelona for a new club.

“Mateo is still little and he doesn't realise what it means to go somewhere else and make your life a few years elsewhere,” he said.

“Thiago, he is older. He heard something on TV and found out something and asked.

“I didn't want him to know anything about being forced to leave, to have to live in a new school, or make new friends.

“He cried to me and said ‘let's not go’. I repeat that it was hard, really.

“It was understandable. It happened to me. It is very difficult to make a decision.

“I love Barcelona and I'm not going to find a better place than here anywhere. Still, I have the right to decide. I was going to look for new goals and new challenges. And tomorrow I could go back, because here in Barcelona I have everything.

“My son, my family, they grew up here and are from here. There was nothing wrong with wanting to leave. I needed it, the club needed it and it was good for everyone.

“My wife, with all the pain of her soul, supported and accompanied me.”

Messi will now resume training for Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona as the club looks for a new chapter under a new manager.