08/25/2020 - 15:42
- Clarín.com
- sports
The worst of the nightmares broke out this Tuesday for fans and leaders of FC Barcelona: Lionel Messi ended the speculation and announced without further ado that his intention is to leave the club immediately and without paying a peso. The managers tried to get out of the shock quickly, they gave him a rejection response to his request and even have the dream of making him change his mind, although the confrontation seems increasingly open.
The Catalan site Sport assures without turning this Tuesday that "the Messi-Barça war is already total" . It confirms that the player, through his legal advisers, sent a burofax to the club in which he communicated his intention to leave the club in a free condition and in the same message he assured that he has the legal backing to do so without putting a burden. The answer was immediate.
From the Blaugrana institution they replied that the request "has no legal substance" because it prescribed on May 30 the period in which Leo had the possibility of renouncing the renewal of his contract -which expires in mid-2021- and leave the club as free.
Messi, during the stay in Lisbon that ended badly. (Photo: AP)
The argument that Messi's environment handles is understandable, although it will be necessary to see if it has weight in a legal battle: they consider that the date of May 30 was set thinking that it would be a week after the Champions League final, postponed as a result of the stand for the coronavirus pandemic. And they emphasize that Leo's request was only two days after that meeting.
In the midst of this exchange, the fact that by the time Leo had to communicate his decision to Barcelona had not even been defined yet the Spanish League had been defined: it would have been very difficult for him to make a decision with his team in the race in the two competitions most important of the year.
In the Catalan club they have a small light of hope to be able to get the situation back on track and get Messi to stay, although now it seems like a utopia. For now, they assure that they will not listen to offers for him, and in that case the only possible way out would be paying a termination clause that seems impossible to pay for a 33-year-old player, even though he is one of the best in the history of the game. football: 700 million euros .
Meanwhile, it also seems out of logic to retain against his will a player who is willing to leave and who evidently in recent times did nothing more than add arguments in favor of that idea: the loss of the League at the hands of Real Madrid , the embarrassing elimination of the Champions League against Bayern Munich, the fury over the leak of his meeting with coach Ronald Koeman and, finally, the departure of his friend Luis Suárez from the team.
Lionel Messi, Antonela Roccuzzo, Luis Suárez and their partner, Sofía Balbi, during a vacation in 2018.
From the leadership of Barcelona, it is clear, they did little to repair a bond that, due to the poor results of the last campaign, ended up wearing thin. Now, they still cling to a tiny hope that time will heal the wounds that remain open. Meanwhile, just in case, they already made it known that if Leo keeps his idea of leaving, they will not make it easy for him. Not much less.
FK