Barcelona captain and all-time leading goalscorer Lionel Messi has agreed to stay with the0Catalan giants days after telling the club he wanted to leave.
Messi, 33, sent a fax to Barca last Tuesday saying he wanted to exercise a clause in his contract which he said allowed him to leave for free.
Te six times Ballon d’Ore winner announced that he will stay at Barcelona until June 30 at the earliest.
“I never wanted to go to court with Barcelona because it’s the club that I love,” Messi reportedly told to Goal.com ruling out his widely anticipated exit.
🚨 WORLD EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Lionel Messi will NOT be leaving Barcelona, we can confirm.
We sat down with the man himself to clear up a few things 🐐
Here's what he had to say: pic.twitter.com/NfnhGpZpXc
— Goal (@goal) September 4, 2020
“If that was the only way of leaving, I’m staying.”
He is now expected to return to pre-season training ahead of the start of LaLiga Santander this month.
This announcement comes after a talk between Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and Jorge Messi, Lionel’s father and agent, this week.
During the highlevel meeting between the pair, Bartomeu made it very clear that he wasn’t prepared to sell Messi this summer, referring to the 700 million euro release clause in his contract.
Lionel Messi: "I told to the club, to the president in particular, that I wanted to leave. They know this since the start of the past season. I told them during all last 12 months. But I will stay here because I don't want to start a legal war". 🚨 #FCB #Messi #Barcelona
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 4, 2020
Bartomeu also refused to agree on an asking price for the Argentine this summer.
As a result, Messi has decided not to denounce his contract because he didn’t want to take the matter to court, damaging his and the club’s reputations in the process.