Lionel Messi is staying at FC Barcelona.
After nearly two weeks of speculation about where the 33-year-old would end up, Messi decided that there's no place like home.
“I love Barcelona and I'm not going to find a better place than here anywhere," Messi told Goal on Friday. "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's reversal puts an end to a frenzied period in which his long-rumoured unhappiness with the club was confirmed. He handed in a transfer request in late August that shook the world, with the likes of Manchester City and PSG surfacing as potential destinations for the Argentine. Messi invoked a termination clause that would allow him to leave for free, but only if the clause was activated by mid-June.
With the COVID-19 pandemic extending La Liga and the UEFA Champions League well past the original termination date, Messi felt that the June 10 date should likewise be extended. Naturally, Barcelona felt otherwise, leading to the highest-profile player-club impasse in recent memory.
Despite his decision to stay, Messi made it abundantly clear that he only accepted Barca's position when it became clear that the club would not let him leave without a massive transfer fee or a legal battle. The superstar says Barca president Josep Bartomeu assured him that he'd be free to leave following the 2019-20 season, should that be what Messi wanted.
“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 clause, and that this is impossible.”
Even though there was speculation that Messi and Barcelona could seek legal judgement, he stressed that it was never a serious option for him.
“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.”
Watch Messi's entire interview above, or at DAZN's YouTube channel.