Lionel Messi will remain at Barcelona for the coming 2020/21 season to avoid getting into any form of legal dispute with ‘the club that has given him everything’
Messi had earlier notified the club of his intention to leave but the club management has refused to let the player go by activating a 700-million-euro release clause in his contract.
Messi’s father and agent claim the release clause is removed once the player takes up the option in his contract to leave for free, which Messi’s side believe he did when he notified Barca by burofax on August 25.
Barcelona believes the option in the player’s contract that allowed him to leave for free expired on June 10.
Messi’s side insists the deadline was the end of the season, which was extended into August due to the pandemic.
Speaking with Goal, Messi said he is going to remain at the club in the interim ‘to avoid dragging his beloved club to court’
He said, “When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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 cou
rt.”