Lionel Messi to continue at Barcelona to avoid court battle

Reuters photo

Ending speculation on team shift, Lionel Messi on Friday confirmed that he will continue to remain with Barcelona for another year. He further said that he is taking this decision as he does not want to get into a court fight with the club about his contract.

The Argentine star said that Barcelona's president had told him that he can only leave after paying a 700 million euros ($824 million) release clause. He also said that he wasn't happy and wanted to leave but not being allowed to do so he will stay at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute. 

"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," Goal.com quoted Messi as saying.

The 33-year-old Argentina forward said, “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.''

Expressing his feeling for Barcelona, the football legend said, "Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything. 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."

Meanwhile, Messi's decision of staying back in Barcelona has made his fans happy who were earlier shocked by the announcement that he wanted to leave his lifelong club last month.

The speculation of Messi leaving Barcelona started a few days after Barcelona was handed an 8-2 drubbing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final.