Leeds: Six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi on Friday announced that he would stay at his boyhood club Barcelona, before revealing the reason he wanted to leave the Spanish giants in the first place.
The Argentine star, who is 33 years old, said he wants to live the "last years of his football career" happily and lately, he has "not found happiness within the club."
"It has hurt me a lot that things are published against me and above all, that false things are published. Or that they came to think that I could go to trial against Barca in order to benefit myself," Messi was quoted as saying by a sports website.
"I would never do such a thing. I repeat, I wanted to go and it was entirely my right because the contract said that I could be released. And it is not, 'I'm leaving and that's it'. I was leaving and it cost me a lot. I wanted to go because I thought about living my last years of football happily. Lately, I have not found happiness within the club," he added.
Speaking about his family's reaction to his decision of leaving Barca, Messi said, “When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama.
In August, Messi had conveyed his message to Barcelona that he no longer wanted to stay with the club. However, after weeks of speculations regarding his future, the six-time Ballon d'Or winner on Friday confirmed that he will stay at Barcelona.
Revealing the reason behind his decision, Messi had said that the Barcelona president told him that the only way to leave the club was to pay the EUR700 million clause.
"Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the EUR700 million (£624m/$823m) clause and that this is impossible," Messi had said.
Earlier on Sunday, the organisers of LaLiga had sided with Barcelona and said that the Argentine striker's contract with the club is still valid and added that if other clubs are interested in availing the footballer's services, then they must pay EUR700 million as the release clause amount in full.
Last month, Barcelona was handed an 8-2 drubbing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final. Also, the Spanish side had to endure a trophy-less 2019-20 campaign.
