Lionel Messi claims he did everything in the interest of Barcelona

Lionel Messi Saga was all for the betterment of Barcelona’s future.

There was a huge conflict between the Barcelona board and the fans when club legend, Lionel Messi, wanted to leave the club after the end of last season. The board decided, however, that Messi’s clause had ended in June when the season should have ended had it not been prolonged due to the pandemic. Thus the Argentine was stuck in Spain. In a recent interview, he has come out and said that he never meant to hurt the club or the fans and always had their best interests in his mind.

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Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player to have ever graced the football pitch was left shattered after the humiliating 8-2 loss against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona had been declining steadily ever since the Xavi–Iniesta era ended. The club spent around one billion euros over several years since then to regain the terrific midfield they once boasted but alas money could not solve their problem. The club reached rock bottom that night and Messi had enough of the club’s decision.

In an interview with Goal, he said that the club had lost direction and there had been no proper plans for years. The club he loved was being destroyed by the board who are not passionate enough to look into the deeper problems of the club. Even with all the big-money transfer, the Catalans have failed to lift a single Champions League trophy since 2015.

In the same interview he later went on to assure that even though he was disappointed with the management, he would never take the club he loves to court, and thus he would honor his contract and then contemplate on his future next year. In a recent interview with Sport, the 33-year-old said that he wants to ask for forgiveness from the fans if he had hurt them as he always had the best interests of the club.

"“I take responsibility for my errors and if they existed, it was only to make FC Barcelona better and stronger,”“I wanted to send a message to all the social and fans that follow us. If at any moment, any of them were annoyed by something that I said or did, let there be no doubts that anything I did was always with the club’s best interests in mind.”Source Goal."

He went on to say that the club must remain united in these tough times and with a new manager in charge, it is exactly what they need. The legend’s decision is still not known but he might go on to sign a few more years with the club should Ronald Koeman have a good debut season.
Barcelona won 4-0 against Villarreal in their opening match of the La Liga, with youngsters like Ansu Fati showing immense promise.

Would letting Messi leave be better for Barca in the long run?