Barcelona
Finally to abide by the contract, Argentinan star Lionel Messi will have to stay with Barcelona. On Friday Messi was left with nothing but to say he would not be going anywhere but stay at Barcelona despite stressing he wanted to leave the club on a free transfer.
Messi said he would never want to drag the Catalans to court over the euro 700 million release clause which has led to disagreement between both the parties.
The decision ended an impasse over his future after he had told Barcelona that he wanted to leave the club for free at the end of the season.
Barcelona wanted him to finish his contract that runs until the end of 2021. It claimed that the clause invoked by Messi to leave had expired in June and said that he had to pay the buyout clause of 700 million euros ($837 million) if he wanted to depart now.
There had been no agreement when Messi's father and Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu met on Wednesday to discuss the player's future, with Jorge Messi saying his son wanted to leave and Barcelona saying it would not facilitate his transfer.
In an interview to Goal.com, Lionel Messi said he would be staying at Barcelona and his attitude will never change despite his attempt to force an exit after their trophy-less season in 2019-20. Messi will be working with newly-appointed coach Ronald Koeman.
"I will continue at Barca and my attitude will not change no matter how much I have wanted to go. I will do my best. I always want to win, I'm competitive and I don't like to lose anything. I always want the best for the club, for the dressing room and for myself," Messi said.
"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."
