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Thread on Messi’s interview with @goal:
“[I’ve taken so long to speak] because the loss in Lisbon was very hard. We knew that our opponent was gonna be difficult, but we didn’t wanna go out that way, giving off a poor image to the club and the fans. We gave a very bad image.”
Messi: “I wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t feel like doing anything. I wanted time to pass so that I could come out later and clarify everything.”
Messi: “I told the club, above all, the president, that I wanted to leave. I’d been telling him all year. I thought it was time to step aside. I believed that the club needed younger players, new players, and I felt like my era at Barcelona had ended.”
Messi: “I felt very sorry because I always said that I wanted to end my career at Barça. It was a very hard year. I suffered a lot in training, in games, and in the dressing room. Everything got very hard for me and there came a time when I decided to look for new goals/pastures”
Messi: “This [decision] didn’t happen because of the result against Bayern in the Champions League. I had already been thinking about this decision for a long time. I told the president, and he told me that I could decide at the end of the season if I wanted to leave or stay.”
Messi: “In the end, he (Bartomeu) didn’t keep his word.”
Messi: “I didn’t feel alone. The same people have always been my side. That’s all I need and it makes me strong. But I did feel hurt hearing things from people, journalists, of people who were doubting [my love for the club] and saying things that I don’t think I deserved.”
Messi: “It helped me realize who [my friends are]. This world of football is hard, and there’s a lot of fake people. This helped me realize who the fake people are that I once looked at in a different light. It hurt when my love for the club was in doubt.”
Messi: “Whether I stay or leave, my love for Barça will never change.”
Messi: “A bit of everything [has hurt me]. The “amigos” of Messi, about the money...a lot of things that were said have hurt me. I always put the club above everything else. I had the possibility to leave Barça many times.”
Messi: “The money? Every year, I could have left to earn more money than I did at Barcelona. I have always said that this is my home and it’s what I felt and still feel. [Anything] better than here (Barça) is hard [to find]. I felt like a needed a change, new goals, new things.”
Messi: “Clearly, it took a lot from me to decide. This isn’t because of the Bayern result, it’s because of a lot of things. I’ve always said that I wanted to finish [my career] here and I always said I wanted to stay.”
Messi: “I wanted a winning project and I wanted to keep winning titles with the club to continue making the legendary Barça bigger in terms of titles.”
Messi: “The truth is that for some time, there has been no project or nothing. They have been trying to balance things and continue to keep covering the cracks of things as they happen. Like I said before, I’ve always thought of the well-being of my family and the club.”
Messi: “When I told my wife and children that I wanted to leave, it turned into an intense drama. My entire family was crying. My kids don’t want to leave Barcelona and change schools.”
Messi: “I looked beyond & I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League. You can win or lose [in Champions League], but you have to compete. We at least have to compete & not have what happened to us in Rome, Liverpool or Lisbon happen.”
Messi: “All of that made me think about the decision that I wasn’t able to carry through.”
Messi: “We’ll go back to the start. I thought and we were sure that I was free to leave.”
Messi: “The president always said that at the end of the season, I could decide whether to stay or not.”
Messi: “Now, they’ve latched onto the fact that I didn’t tell them before June 10th, when on June 10th, we were competing for La Liga amidst this shit virus and illness that changed the dates for the season.”
Messi: “This is why I will stay at the club. I will stay because the president told me that the only way for me to leave is to pay the €700M clause, which is impossible, or the other way, which is to go to court.”
Messi: “I will not go to court against Barça because this is the club I love, the club that gave me everything since I arrived. It’s the club of my life. My life was made here. Barça gave me everything and I gave them everything. It never crossed my mind to take Barça to court.”
Messi: “It has hurt me a lot that things have been published against me, and above all, that they’ve published false things. Or that anyone could think I would take Barça to court for my own benefit. I would never do anything like that.”
Messi: “I repeat, I wanted to leave and I was within my rights to do so because the contract said I could leave for free. And it’s not ‘I’m leaving and that’s it’. It was, ‘I’m leaving and it’s very hard for me’.”
Messi: “I wanted to leave because I wanted to happily live out the rest of my years in football. This last [year], I didn’t find any happiness within the club.”
Messi: “I will continue at Barca and my attitude will not change no matter how much I wanted to leave. I will give [the club] my best. I always want to win, I'm competitive and don't like to lose at all. I always want the best for the club, the dressing room and for myself.”
Messi: “I said in the moment that we didn't have [the resources] to win the Champions League. The truth is, I don't know what will happen now. There's a new manager and a new idea.”
Messi: “That's good, but we'll have to see how the team responds and if it will be enough for us to compete or not. All I can say is that I'm staying and I will give my all.”
Messi: “It hurt that my love for the club was in doubt, considering how grateful I am towards this club. I love Barça and I will always be better off here than anywhere else.”
Messi: “Despite that, I’m still within my right to decide. I was looking for new objectives and new goals. And tomorrow, I could’ve come back because I have everything here in Barcelona. My family grew up here and are from here.”
Messi: “It wasn’t bad for me to decide [to leave] in that moment. I needed it, the club needed it, and it was good for everyone involved.”
Messi: “Mateo is little and he doesn’t know what it means to go somewhere else and live some of your life elsewhere. Thiago does, he’s older. He hears something on TV and he asks questions.”
Messi: “He didn’t want to know anything about possibly leaving, going to a new school, or making new friends. He cried to me and would say ‘let’s not leave’. I repeat that it was hard, truthfully. It was understandable. It happened to me. It’s very difficult to make a decision
This concludes the translations of Messi’s interview on Forward Barça.
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