- Barcelona remain third on the log after losing to Granada but they are still in the title race. Published 8:54, Wednesday 02 September 2020 BST Frenkie de Jong has revealed that Lionel Messi is still in the club's group chat despite asking to leave Barcelona this summer. That set the stage for an ugly legal fight between the player and the club, and Messi, in his interview with Goal, appeared to back away rather than face Barcelona in court. ter Stegen, Neto Messi: Why I am staying at Barcelona despite heartbreak. In the summer of 2008 he also played at the Beijing Olympics, and came home with a gold medal. A new coach, Ronald Koeman, has already been hired and several senior players, including Messi’s close friend Luis Suárez, have been told they have no future at the Camp Nou. As Messi developed first into the best player of his generation and then, possibly, into the best in history, so Barcelona was transformed into arguably the most popular sports team in the world. In the 2008/09 season, and now without Ronaldinho alongside him, Messi became the main star of the Barça squad that claimed the treble and he scored in the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals. His rise, in that time, has mirrored that of his club. For almost a decade, the club represented soccer’s gold standard. 22 It claimed that the clause invoked by Messi to leave had expired on June 10 and said that he had to pay a buyout clause of 700 million euros ($837 million) if he wanted to depart now. The club is now left counting the cost of those errors, and in Messi has a star player who is a prisoner of his gilded contract. The flagship Barça school. The 2014/2015 season was one of the Argentine star's most brilliant. “I will stay at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute,” Messi said, contending that the team had acted in bad faith. Marc-André 2012/13 • But the havoc wrought on the soccer schedule by the pandemic meant the Spanish season did not finish until months after the date stipulated in the agreement. 18 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/sports/soccer/lionel-messi-barcelona.html Technically perfect, he brings together unselfishness, pace, composure and goals to make him number one. It also spares the team the embarrassment of losing its most beloved, and most valuable, asset without receiving a transfer fee. The reason is that he gets everything that he wants there. Lionel Messi broke his silence on why he sought to leave Barcelona, revealing to Goal … Roberto, Umtiti Messi is also captain of the Argentina national side and has played in four World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018), losing in the final in 2014 in Brazil against Germany. The management of the club led by Bartomeu is a disaster.”, He added: “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. Injury kept him sidelined for much of the latter stage of the season, but Messi still played a total of 17 league games, 6 in the Champions League and 2 in the Copa del Rey, and scored eight goals. 2010/11 • 2012 • The organisation that unites ex-players from all FC Barcelona football teams. He has scored more goals than anyone else in La Liga history, and holds the assist record, too. 2012/13 • 2 As it stands, Lionel Messi will depart Barcelona as a free agent in just two months' time - but Dani Alves has urged the Argentine superstar not to leave the "best place ever" However, to put it simply, Messi and Barcelona have come to the end of their road together. “I looked further afield and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. 2017/18 • 2020/21, 2009/10 • Messi's current terms expire in June, when he turns 34, and he has said that he will wait until the end of the season before deciding on his future. Martin His tally of individual records, if anything, is more remarkable. Messi is still one of, if not, the best player in global football, but he's also a player on a downward trajectory. Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona this summer, but could still leave the club next year. But as many of the stars — such as Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol — that lined up alongside Messi during that glorious run started to age and eventually moved on or retired, the club made a series of errors, seemingly spending more and more money on talent while getting weaker season upon season. The Lionel Messi salary 2021 has been revealed by El Mundo, and the Barcelona attacker will make over $167 million this year alone. 9 14 Messi was 28 when the team won its last European Cup. The club reached a nadir with a humbling 8-2 defeat at the hands of the German champion Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League last month. He ended 2012 with the record number of goals in a calendar year (91), thus beating the historic tally established by Gerd Müller (85 for Bayern Munich and Germany in 1972). 2011/12 • 2019, 2009/10 • He has won more Ballons d’Or — the trophy awarded annually to the world’s best player — than anyone else, played in more victories than any other Barcelona player, scored more hat-tricks and doubles than anyone else. There is still a strong argument to say Messi is one of the very best players in the world, although Lewandowski probably had a better 2019-20 season than anybody else. The following championship-winning season, Messi made his first appearance in an official match on October 16, 2004, in Barcelona's derby win against Espanyol at the Olympic Stadium (0-1). 13 We have all the details here. 12 2014/15 • “I wasn’t happy and I wanted to leave,” Messi said in the Goal interview. Instead, he will remain to help pick up the pieces as Barcelona prepares to rebuild itself after a catastrophic year on and off the field. He didn’t leave after Bayern Munich. “I would never go to war against the club of my life,” Messi said. 2016/17 • The Argentinian also surpassed Luis Figo's all-time La Liga assist record (105). Sergi At the age of 13, Lionel Messi crossed the Atlantic to try his luck in Barcelona, and joined the Under 14s. “I have not been allowed this in any way and I will stay at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute. Messi said that given his relationship with the club and its supporters he could not countenance the idea of pursuing a damaging lawsuit to force his way out of the club. Messi has been with the team for 20 years, since he moved there as a 13-year-old from Argentina. 2010/11 • But it may do little to resolve months of turmoil at Barcelona, a downward spiral that has involved coaching changes, boardroom intrigue and public bickering. In 2005 he became the youngest player ever to score in the league for Barça, a record now held by Ansu Fati. Miralem The surrender to the German champion came after similar capitulations in the Champions League against Roma and Liverpool in recent seasons. Junior Samuel He was also outstanding at the Santiago Bernabéu, in Barcelona's unforgettable 3-0 win, and also at Stamford Bridge, in the Champions League match against Chelsea. Manu Fernandez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, announcing his intention to leave Barcelona. The fact that he is still a Barcelona player will be described as a U-turn, but it is not. There was growing speculation that Messi would be joining Manchester City, backed by the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the English team — managed by Messi’s old mentor, Pep Guardiola — is one of few in world soccer that could both afford to hire Messi and provide him with the platform for the success he still craves. 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