Barcelona legend Lionel Messi says he is staying at the club because it is “impossible” for any team to pay his release clause and he does not want to face “the club I love” in court.
Speaking to Goal, 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.
“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 700m clause, and that this is impossible.”
“Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before 10 June, when it turns out that on 10 June we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season,” he added.
“There was another way and it was to go to trial. 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.”
“I looked further afield and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League,” 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.
“I love Barcelona and I’m not going to find a better place than here anywhere. Still, I have the right to decide.
“I was going to look for new goals and new challenges. And tomorrow I could go back, because here in Barcelona I have everything.”