Lionel Messi has not had a great year. The football superstar had a messy, professional relationship with a club he’s been with since he started his career. He lost out on team mates, and is now in a position where he’s unhappily playing for FC Barcelona, waiting for next summer.

Back in September, Messi sent an official fax to Barca where he expressed interest in exercising a clause in his contract which allows him to leave for free. But the club was insistent on him paying his 700 million euro release amount if he intends to leave the club.

“I thought and was sure that I was free to leave,” Messi told Goal.

“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.

“Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700 million clause, and that this is impossible.”

Messi also explained how there was an option to take Barca to court, but he didn’t want to go that road with a club that positively contributed to his career.

“Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before 10 June, when it turns out that on 10 June we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season,” he added.

“There was another way and it was to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived.

“It is the club of my life, I have made my life here.”

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The Spanish club is currently going through a slump, something it hasn’t seen in years. And it doesn’t help Lionel Messi when fingers are pointed at him for the club’s recent performances. In a rare event that unfolded last month, FC Barcelona striker Lionel Messi lost his cool, and lashed out at reporters who questioned him about being the reason for the club’s poor performance.

Antoine Griezmann’s former agent accused Messi of running a “regime of terror” at the club. After being surrounded by reporters at the airport who asked him to comment on his “terrorising” leadership, Messi said, “I am tired of always being the problem with everything that goes on at this club.”

Former FC Barcelona boss Quique Setien also commented on the striker. According to a report by ESPN, Setien spoke to El Pais newpaper where he compared Messi to Michael Jordan and claimed players like him are “difficult” to manage.

“It’s true that there are players that are not easy to manage, among them, Leo [Messi],” Setien told the newspaper. “It’s difficult when someone is accustomed to winning.

“And when inside him, it generates an anxiety when you don’t achieve that [win], it harms you. The demand that exists today in football is brutal, it has saturated him and others that need to permanently win.

He added, “There’s another facet beyond just the player and it’s more difficult to manage. Much more difficult. It’s something inherent in many athletes that can be seen in the Michael Jordan documentary [The Last Dance]. You see things you don’t expect.

“He [Lionel Messi] is very reserved and only shows you the things that he wants you to see. He doesn’t speak much.”

All of the on-goings throughout the year definitely took a toll on Messi, but after a messy summer, Lionel Messi feels he’s in a better position currently.

“The truth is that today I’m fine. It’s true that I had a very bad time in the summer,” the Argentinian footballer told La Sexta.

“It came from before. What happened before the summer, because of how the season ended, the burofax and all that… Then I dragged it on a bit at the beginning of the season.

“But today I’m fine and I feel like fighting seriously for everything that lies ahead, [I’m] excited.

“I know that the club is going through a difficult time, at club level and everything that surrounds Barcelona, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Lionel Messi will be back in action with FCB when they take in a crucial trip to Real Valladolid in La Liga on Tuesday night.

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