Reported Chelsea target Lionel Messi will be staying at Barcelona for another season at least, the Argentine forward has revealed.
Despite Messi very publicly revealing that he wanted to leave the Camp Nou, the 33-year-old has now insisted he will be staying put at the La Liga giants.
Messi demanded to leave Barca at the end of August, activating a clause in his deal that he then believed would allow him to leave the club on a free transfer.
The six-time Ballon d’Or winner then refused to engage with any of the club’s medical tests or training sessions, and the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City were naturally linked.
The saga seemed to coincide with Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Now, the Argentina international has opened up on a long-running dispute with Barcelona’s president Josep Bartomeu.
Messi told Goal : “I told the club, including the president, that I wanted to go. I’ve been telling him that all year. I believed it was time to step aside.
“I believed that the club needed more young players, new players and I thought my time at Barcelona was over. I felt very sorry because I always said that I wanted to finish my career here.
“It was a very difficult year, I suffered a lot in training, in games and in the dressing room. Everything became very difficult for me and there came a time when I considered looking for new ambitions.
“It did not come because of the Champions League result against Bayern, no - I had been thinking about the decision for a long time.
“I told the president and, well, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end, he did not keep his word.”
