08/06/2023
🚨🚨🚨Leo Messi: "I will not return to Barcelona, I will join Inter Miami."
Messi: "I made the decision to go to Miami. I still haven't closed it 100% and there are some things missing, but well, we decided to continue the journey there."
Messi: "Busquets and Alba will join Inter Miami with me? That's another of the things they said, that we had it all sorted out. Everyone is looking out for their own future. I was obviously keeping an eye on them, but we never agreed to go anywhere together."
Messi: "The truth is that I had offers from another European team, but I didn't even evaluate it because in Europe my idea was only to go to Barcelona."
Messi: "After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barça, I had to go to the American league to experience football in a different way and enjoy the day to day."
Messi: "Obviously with the same responsibility and the same desire to want to win and to always do things well. But with more peace of mind."
Messi: "I feel good, calm, having finished the season. It was an atypical year because we played the World Cup in the middle. It made everything different. Now I'm thinking about the games with the national team and the holidays."
Messi: "The truth is that the first year at PSG was very difficult, as I said on some occasions, for different reasons. The second year, the first six months I felt very, very good, very comfortable in the club, in the city, with my family."
Messi: "In the middle of the season there was the World Cup and I think the World Cup affected all the teams in general, it affected the season a little bit, with such an important competition in the middle for the first time."
Messi: "I think it conditioned the season a lot. I had hoped to finish in a different way, but well, it was a difficult two years for me in general."
Messi: "Did I miss Barça when I was at PSG? Yes, obviously I did. I was just saying, the truth is that the first year here was very difficult for me, after the departure, how it was and everything."
Messi: "When I was at PSG, obviously I followed Barça, I watched the games and I always missed the memories and being able to be there..."
Messi: "Barça winning La Liga this season? Yes, I was excited, I followed it all year and I wanted Barça to win like every Barcelona fan."
Messi: "I talk to Xavi a lot, also about some games, after the game, about situations... The truth is that we've been talking a lot since he became a coach. And I followed him, obviously."
Messi: "I really wanted to return to Barça but after having lived through what I went through and the departure I had, I didn't want to be in the same situation again... Waiting to see what was going to happen and leaving my future in someone else's hands."
Messi: "I wanted to make my own decision, thinking about myself, my family. Although I heard that La Liga had accepted everything and that everything was fine for me to return, there were still a lot of other things that needed to happen."
Messi: "I heard that Barça had to sell players or lower the salaries of players and the truth is that I didn't want to go through that, or be in charge of getting anything to do with all that."
Messi: "I was already blamed for a lot of things that weren't true in my career at Barcelona and I was a bit tired of it, I didn't want to go through all that... What were they going to say about me if they had to sell players or things like that for my signing."
Messi: "The time I had to leave, in 2021, La Liga had also agreed to register me and in the end it was not possible. Well, I was afraid that the same thing would happen again."
Messi: "When I left in 2021, I had to come here to Paris to stay in a hotel for a long time with my family, with my children going to school and still being in the hotel... I didn't want my future in the air again."
Messi: "I wanted to make my own decision and that's why my return to Barça didn't happen. Even though I would have loved to, it didn't happen."
Messi: "I'm also in a moment where I want to get out of the spotlight a bit, to think more about my family. As I was saying just now, I spent two years with my family in such a bad way that I didn't enjoy it at Paris."
Messi: "I had that month which was spectacular for me because I won the World Cup, but apart from that it was a difficult period for me. I want to get back to enjoying myself, enjoying my family, my children, the day to day..."
Messi: "I wanted to make my own decision and not have to wait again for the same thing to happen. As I said, after having achieved everything, thanks to God, and having finally won the World Cup, which I wanted so much, I wanted to look for something else and for peace of mind."
Messi: "My family was very excited about everything we heard about returning to Barça, but at the same time we weren't that excited because the reality was that we still didn't know what would happen, but obviously we were very keen to return."
Messi: "We never wanted to leave Barcelona, it was very difficult, but they also support me and it is a decision taken as a family, not just mine. They are also happy about the new change, although they are also sad to leave."
Messi: "It was hard for them at first but now they are more than adapted here in Paris. They have their friends at school and it hurts them to leave all that. They are grown up now. Thiago especially understands the situation and is happy about what is to come."
Messi: "Barça saying that everything depended on me? I listened to everything that was said. La Liga had given the OK but it's not real that the decision is mine because there are many things missing and I don't want to go through what I've already been through."
Messi: "I decided to take the decision earlier to get it over with and to be calm and think about the holidays and my future, already planning what I know is going to be possible."
Messi: "Pressured by what the media was saying in Barcelona? No, because so many things were coming out. I don't know where they came from, but there were a lot of leaks and news."
Messi: "There were even journalists who put me everywhere. I was confirmed in Arabia, in Barcelona they took it for granted and the next day they changed their version. There was a lot of that, so I tried to think about what I knew and felt and deal with that."
Messi: "It was very hard. One of the reasons I just explained is not to go through all that again. It was a very bad time."
Messi: "In 2021, before my departure, we arrived with the illusion of every year, of starting training again and the kids with their schools and their routines..."
Messi: "In 2021, when everything was ready to sign, overnight, it couldn't be done and they told me that it wasn't possible and I had to leave the club. I had to start running and looking for a team, make a decision in a hurry and go through everything we went through..."
Messi: "With president Laporta I spoke very little, once or twice at the most. I do have a lot of communication with Xavi."
Messi: "Did the two years at PSG affect my decision? A bit yes, because there were two years in which I wasn't happy, I didn't enjoy myself, and that affected my family life, I missed a lot of my children's life at school."
Messi: "In Barcelona I went to look for my children, in Paris I did it much less, I shared fewer activities with them. That was also the reason for my decision, to reconnect with my family, with my children, and to enjoy the day to day."
Messi: "I was lucky enough to achieve everything in football and now it goes a little beyond the sporting aspect, which also interests me a lot, but much, much more the family aspect."
Messi: "I'd have loved a farewell like Iniesta, Busquets, Jordi Alba, Xavi... This is why I was very happy to hear the chants with my name by Barça fans at the Camp Nou."
Messi: "It was a strange feeling to hear Barça fans chanting my name at the Camp Nou. I was very happy, but then... I wasn't there."
Messi: "With Xavi we also talked about the possibility of me coming back. We were very excited, because when something came up we discussed if he really wanted me to come back, if it was good for the team and for him."
Messi: "I would have liked to leave Barça in a good way, to have been able to say goodbye to the fans in a good way."
Messi: "Playing for Barça for free? The truth is that the economic aspect was never a problem. We never even got to talk about the contract. A proposal was passed over, but never a formal offer, because there was nothing yet and we didn't know if it was going to happen or not."
Messi: "There was the intention to go to Barça, but we couldn't advance anything, we didn't even talk about money formally."
Messi: "If it had been a matter of money, I would have gone to Saudi Arabia or somewhere else. It seemed like a lot of money and the truth is that my decision was made for other reasons and not for money..."
Messi: "I accepted the messages and the leaks with excitement when they were positive. I wasn't very excited either because I didn't really know what was going to happen."
Messi: "I always remembered what had happened to me, telling my children and my family that we were going to return to Barcelona and then it didn't happen. So yes, I was waiting, but calmly."
🔹️Do you think Barça did everything possible to sign you?
Messi: "I don't know. I knew what I was talking about with Xavi... They got permission from the league to be able to do it. But I tell you, it wasn't just that. There were many things missing."
Messi: "Barça, at the moment, was not in a position to confirm 100% that I could return. And it's understandable, because of the situation the club is going through, and that's how I experienced it."
Messi: "People inside Barça who didn't want me to come back? I don't know. But surely there are people who didn't want me to come back. Like many people I know who want me to come back and they said so and made it public."
Messi: "But there are probably people on the board who don't want me to come back, who don't think it would be good for the club if I came back."
🔹️Since you left, Barça have made a lot of signings. Like Ferran for €55m...
Messi: "At the beginning I was at a time when I was very hurt by my departure and the way it happened. At that moment, I was a bit angry that I couldn't stay and then the club could make signings."
Messi: "But the club at that time understood that they could do it. With the passing of these two years I understood it, I assimilated it and I don't think about it any more. If something like that was done, it was meant to be done that way, and that's it."
Messi: "My relationship with Barça is still hurting? A little bit. For not being able to say goodbye to people as I would have liked to. As I think I would have deserved. As the players I mentioned also deserved and did. I would have liked to leave in that way."
Messi: "On the one hand, there was an ugly feeling with Barça. I had been the bad guy in the movie and I didn't like that either because it hadn't been like that. That's why I would like to have a real farewell at some point..."
Messi: "There were so many years together with the Barça fans, and I would like to say goodbye in the way I feel."
Messi: "Returning to Barça one day as a player or in another position? Yes, obviously I would like to be close to the club. I'm going to live in Barcelona in the future. It's one of the things we're very clear about with my wife and my children."
Messi: "Hopefully, I don't know when, but hopefully one day I can contribute something to Barça and help because it's a club that I love, as I've always said. I am grateful for the affection I have had from the people during my career and I would like to be there again, yes."
Messi: "There were many things that bothered me, when they talked a lot about my family, when they said that my son had had a bad time in Paris. My children don't want to leave here because they are doing so well."
Messi: "When people get involved with my family and people start talking about things they don't know about, it bothers me a bit and more than anything else, that they talk and lie."
