Messi wants to leave Barcelona – report

Argentina superstar, Lionel Messi has pulled the plug on contract renewal talks with Barcelona. This is according to Spanish journalist Manu Carreño who made the revelations on radio station Cadena Ser.

The talks had been going well, based on initial conversations between Messi’s father and Barcelona president Bartomeu, but the Argentinean is now planning to leave the club when his current deal finishes in June 2021.

Messi had the option to leave Barcelona up to June 10 this year. However, he decided not to exercise that option meaning his current contract, initially signed in November 2018, continues until June 30, 2021.

According to the reports, Messi is fed up with “problems” surrounding the club, including leaks to the media, a “strange” atmosphere in the dressing room and above all, the feeling that sections of the club blame him for everything that goes wrong. 

Messi has told his inner circle of his frustration, complaining that he does not want to be held responsible for anything other than his performances on the pitch. Messi has even gone so far as to share his plans with the most important players at the club.

He is also said to be angry at player choices taken by the club. He feels that management have failed to provide him with the right support players.

Messi’s differences with the sporting bosses at Camp Nou – including anger at his former teammate and club sporting director Eric Abidal and his disagreements with coach Quique Setién – are well known, as is his refusal to understand why the club didn’t make an effort to bring back Neymar. The Argentinean also feels that the recent poor results, which have opened the door for Real Madrid to win the title, have been blamed on him. 

He feels he is blamed for influencing the team selection in order to choose players he’s closer to, such as Luis Suárez and Arturo Vidal, to the detriment to Antoine Griezmann, for example.

Messi scored his 700th goal against Atlético and he still has a chance of winning LaLiga with Barca (although unlikely after Real Madrid’s win over Getafe) and the Champions League, but his recent problems with management and above all the criticism he’s received for his behaviour towards the staff, together with leaks of private conversations, appear to have worn him out.

Messi had said he intended to stay at Barcelona if he was physically able to but he now appears to have changed his mind – a real hammer blow for the club.

Messi said several months ago that the team didn’t have enough to win the Champions League, an idea Setién publicly refused to agree with. Messi responded that he had more experience of the competition. Now, with Madrid four points ahead at the top of the table, LaLiga seems nigh-on impossible and Messi may be beginning to see the end of his Barcelona career.