Lionel Messi is staying with Barcelona, but not because he wants to play there

The Argentine striker told the club he wanted to leave before the start of the season.

Lionel Messi made it official.

On Friday morning, the Argentine striker announced that he will be staying with Barcelona after previously indicating that he wanted to leave the club. And he isn’t happy about it.

“I told the club, to the president in particular, that I wanted to leave. They know since the start of the past season. I told them during all last 12 months. But I will stay here because I don’t want to start a legal war,” Messi told Goal.

According to Barcelona, Messi’s exit clause in his contract expired in June, and because the contract is valid through 2021, an interested club would have to pay over 700 million euros for the striker. Messi and his father argued that he had exercised the exit clause that would allow him to leave at the end of this season. La Liga backed Barcelona, saying they would not process a transfer unless the buyout clause was paid.

“I’m going to stay at the club because the president told me the only way to leave was to pay the €700m clause, which is impossible, and that the alternative was going to court,” Messi said. “I would never take Barca to court ever, because it’s the club that I love.”

What does Lionel Messi see in Barcelona’s future?

Messi said that he doesn’t think the club is working towards anything.

“The truth is that there is no project at this club,” Messi said. “They just plug holes as and when things happen.”

Many fans thought that Messi’s choice to leave might have stemmed from the club’s 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals. But Messi made it clear that he was committed to leaving well before that.

“It doesn’t come from the Bayern result, it comes from many things,” Messi said. “I always said I wanted to end my career here and I always said I wanted to stay here. I wanted a winning project and to win trophies with the club.”

His announcement comes at the same time that it was revealed that another superstar striker, Luis Suarez, is leaving the club to join the reigning champions of Serie A, Juventus. He will be joining Cristiano Ronald, who left Real Madrid to join Juventus in 2018.