Barcelona striker Lionel Messi announced this Friday, in an interview with goal.com, that he will continue to play for the Azulgrana team next season.
“I would never go to trial against the club of my life. That’s why I’m staying at Barcelona,” said the Argentine star, who confirmed that he will be on his contract for the remaining year.
This is messi’s full interview with Goal at his home in Castelldefels,Barcelona
Question – Why did it take you a while to break your silence and go out and talk?
Answer — “First, because after the defeat of Lisbon it was very hard. We knew he was a very difficult rival, but not that we were going to end up that way, giving that poor image for the club and for Barcelona. We gave a very bad image. It was wrong, I didn’t feel like anything. I wanted the time to pass by and then go out and clear everything up.”
Q – Why did you tell Barca you could leave?
A — “I told the club, above all, to the president, that I wanted to leave. I’ve been telling you all year. I thought it was time to step aside. I thought the club needed more young people, new people and I thought my time in Barcelona had ended feeling so much because I always said I wanted to finish my career here. It was a very difficult year, I suffered a lot in training, in the matches and in the locker room. It was very difficult for me to find everything and there came a time when I thought about looking for new goals, new airs. It did not come because of the Champions League result against Bayern, the decision had been thinking about it for a long time. I told the president and, well, the president always said that at the end of the season he could decide if I wanted to leave or if I wanted to stay and in the end he didn’t end up keeping his word.”
Q – Have you felt lonely?
A — “I wasn’t lonely. Only not. Next to me have been those who are always. That’s enough for me and it strengthens me. But I did feel hurt by things I heard from people, from journalism, from people questioning my Barcelona and saying things that I don’t think I deserved. It also helped me see who’s who. This football world is very difficult and there are a lot of very fake people. This thing that has happened has helped me recognize a lot of fake people I had in another consideration. It hurt when my love for this club was questioned. As much as I leave or stay, my love for Barca will never change.”
Q – Everything has been heard. About the money factor, Messi’s friends, what hurt you the most after 20 years defending Barca’s shirt?
A — “A little bit of everything, about Messi’s friends, about the money? many things have hurt that have been said. Always get the club before anything. I had a chance to leave Barca many times. The money? Every year I was able to leave and make more money than in Barcelona. I always said this was my house and it was how I felt and felt. It better be hard here. I felt I needed change and new goals, new things”
Q – In the end it is very difficult to give up twenty years, a lifetime, a family that is in Barcelona, a city? And that’s what weighs the most when it comes to making a decision? Because I understand you’re finally staying in Barcelona, right? Are you still in Barcelona?
A — “Of course I had a hard time deciding. It doesn’t come from Bayern’s result, it comes from a lot of things. I always said I wanted to end up here and I always said I wanted to stay here. He wanted a winning project and win titles with the club to continue to enlarge the legend of Barcelona at the level of titles. And the truth is that there’s been no project and nothing in a while, they juggle and they’re plugging holes as things go by. As I said before, I always thought about the well-being of my family and the club.”
Q – What happens when you tell your family that you can leave Barcelona?
A – “When I communicated this to my wife and children it was a barbaric drama. The whole family crying. My children didn’t want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools. I looked further and wanted to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. You can win it or lose it, because it’s very difficult, but you have to compete. At least compete with her and don’t let it happen to us about Rome, about Liverpool, about Lisbon. All that he did led me to think of that decision I didn’t make. Shall we go back to the beginning? I thought and were sure I was free, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide whether or not I stayed and now they grab that I didn’t say it before June 10 when it turns out that the June 10th we were competing for the League in the middle of the this shit virus and this disease that altered every date. And this is why I’m still at the club? Now I’m going to stay at the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the $700 million clause, that that’s impossible, and then there was another way that was to go to trial. I would never go to trial against Barca because it is the club 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 him everything, it never crossed my mind to take Barca to trial.”
Q – Is that what hurt you the most, that some people think you could have hurt Barca? You have been defending the club for years and being the flag of FC Bacelona. Did it hurt you to doubt your Barcelona?
A — “It’s hurt me a lot that things are posted against me and above all, that fake things are published. Or that it came to be thought that I could go to trial against Barca in order to benefit. I would never do such a thing. I repeat, I wanted to leave and it was in all my rights, because the contract said that I could be freed. And it’s not ‘I’m leaving and that’s it.’ It was me leaving and it cost me a lot. I wanted to leave because I was thinking of living happily my last years of football. The latter did not find happiness within the club”
Q – That’s vital. Be happy. You’re a born winner. You’re on a title-fighting team, and these last few seasons Barca hasn’t competed in Europe. You’re still at Barca leading the team, but something’s going to have to change at Barca, right? Something’s going to have to change on a sporting level, right?
A — “I’m going to stay in Barca and my attitude won’t change no more than I’ve ever wanted to leave. I’m going to do my best. I always want to win, I’m competitive and I don’t like losing anything. I always want what’s best for the club, for the locker room and for me. I said it at the time that he didn’t give us to win the Champions League. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. There’s a new coach and a new idea. That’s good, but then you have to see how the team responds and whether or not it’s going to give us to compete. What I can say is that I stay and I’m going to give it my best.”
Q – What was the first thing you thought when there were people who could leave and who really didn’t care about Barcelona? What was the first thing you thought? Feeling angry?
A – “I felt a lot of pain that my Barcelonanism was doubted with all that I am grateful to this club. I love him and I’m not going to be better off here than anywhere. I’m still within the right to decide. He was going to find me new goals and new challenges. And to this day I could turn back, because here in Barcelona I have everything. My son, my family, grew up here and they’re from here There was nothing wrong with leaving at the time. I needed it, the club needed it and it was good for everyone”
Q – Family is a very important thing in your life. Your father has had a hard time, your mistress too, your children, what have they asked you? What did they tell you? Did they say ‘Daddy, this’, ‘Daddy the other’? Did they watch TV and ask you something?
A – “All this time it’s been hard for everyone. I was clear about what I wanted, I’d taken it on and said. My wife with all the pain of the soul supported and accompanied me?”
Q – But the important one of the family is Matthew…
R – (Laughter) “… Yes, Matthew is still small and doesn’t realize what it means to go somewhere else and make your life a few years elsewhere. Thiago yes, it’s bigger. He heard something on TV and found out something and asked. I didn’t want to know anything about being able to leave, having to live in a new school, or making new friends. He was crying at me and saying “let’s not leave, ” I repeat it was hard, really. It was understandable. It happened to me. It’s very difficult to make a decision”
Q – And anyone. Logical, it’s 20 years, that’s a lifetime. You came to Barcelona with the age of your children now. That gets harder. There are two fundamental things that people would like to know… you stay at Barca, you lead the team again, an optimistic message for Barcelona for the future?
A – “As usual. I’m going to give it my best, we’re going to do our best to fight for all the goals and hopefully it’s given and can be dedicated to people who have had a hard time. I had a hard time in the year, but it’s hypocritical to say that when you compare it to people who have really had a hard time with the virus, people who have lost family members and who have lost a lot of things. May we hope that we can do their best and dedicate victories to all those people who accompany us from above and their families, so that we can dedicate the best to those people who are having a hard time and that we can overcome this virus once and for all we can overcome this virus and return to normal”
Q – The famous burofax. There has been a lot of talk that Messi is ill-advised and ill-advised by the decision to communicate that you wanted to leave for burofax Why do you decide send that burofax? What did you want to prove? What was your position?
A — “The burofax was to make it official in some way. Throughout the year I had been telling the president that I wanted to leave, that the time had come to seek new illusions and new directions in my career. He said to me all the time, ‘We’ll talk, no, that this and that,’ but nothing. To put it mildly, the president didn’t give me ‘ball’ to what I was saying. Sending the burofax was to make an officer that I wanted to leave and that I was free and the optional year I wasn’t going to use it and I wanted to leave. Wasn’t it to make a mess, or to go against the club, but the way to make it official because my decision was made?”
Q – If you hadn’t sent the burofax, maybe everything would have been forgotten and no one would have listened to you…
R – “Sure. If I don’t send the bureaux it’s like nothing happens, I have the optional year I had and followed the year. What they say is that I didn’t say it before June 10, but I repeat, we were in the middle of all the competitions and it wasn’t the time. But apart the president always told me ‘when the season is over you decide whether you stay or leave’, he never set a date, and well, it was just making him an officer at the club he didn’t follow, but not to get into a fight because I didn’t want to fight the club.”
