{"id":33733,"date":"2020-12-21T19:40:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=33733"},"modified":"2020-12-21T19:40:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:40:15","slug":"laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future","title":{"rendered":"LaLiga: Messi reveals why he wanted to leave Barcelona, gives update on future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, has spoken out on his situation at the club, as he enters the final six months of his contract.<\/p>\n<p>Messi submitted an official transfer request last summer, following Barca\u2019s 8-2 humbling against Bayern Munich in last season\u2019s Champions League quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were all mooted as possible next destinations for the 33-year-old, but he quickly saw his exit path blocked by Blaugrana and LaLiga officials.<\/p>\n<p>Messi eventually made a u-turn and remained with the Spanish giants in a bid to avoid a legal tussle.<\/p>\n<p>He, however, took aim at the Barca board, accusing former club president Josep Maria Bartomeu of failing to keep his promises.<\/p>\n<p>Messi is yet to extend his deal and will be free to commit to a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs in January.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is that today I\u2019m fine. It\u2019s true that I had a very bad time in the summer,\u201d Messi told La Sexta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut today I\u2019m fine and I feel like fighting seriously for everything that lies ahead, [I\u2019m] excited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that the club is going through a difficult time, at club level and everything that surrounds Barcelona, but I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, has spoken out on his situation at the club, as he enters the final six months of his contract. Messi submitted an official transfer request last summer, following Barca\u2019s 8-2 humbling against Bayern Munich in last season\u2019s Champions League quarter-finals. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were all mooted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,1864,1639,1629,254],"class_list":["post-33733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-barcelona","tag-laliga","tag-messi","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>LaLiga: Messi reveals why he wanted to leave Barcelona, gives update on future - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LaLiga: Messi reveals why he wanted to leave Barcelona, gives update on future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, has spoken out on his situation at the club, as he enters the final six months of his contract. Messi submitted an official transfer request last summer, following Barca\u2019s 8-2 humbling against Bayern Munich in last season\u2019s Champions League quarter-finals. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were all mooted [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-21T19:40:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/img-5fe0cc941a090.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"LaLiga: Messi reveals why he wanted to leave Barcelona, gives update on future\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-21T19:40:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/img-5fe0cc941a090.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"barcelona\",\"LaLiga\",\"messi\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/laliga-messi-reveals-why-he-wanted-to-leave-barcelona-gives-update-on-future\",\"name\":\"LaLiga: Messi reveals why he wanted to leave Barcelona, gives update on future - 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