Lionel Messi bid a tearful farewell to Barcelona on Sunday at a packed press conference and confirmed a switch to Paris Saint-Germain \u201cis a possibility\u201d.
\nMessi, 34, became a free agent in June after 21 years attachment, with continued “financial and structural obstacles” leading to Friday\u2019s bombshell announcement a renewal would not be signed. An incredible 672 goals were netted in 778 appearances by the Argentina icon, with 34 trophies being claimed and six Ballon d\u2019Ors.
\n\u201cThis is very difficult, I was not prepared for this. Last year I was convinced to leave, but this year we were going to stay, my family and I wanted to continue here, in our house,” said Messi.
\n“After 21 years I’m leaving with my three Catalan-Argentine kids. We’ve lived in this city, this is our home. I’m just really grateful for everything, all my team-mates, everyone who has been by my side.
\n“I gave everything for this club from the first day I arrived to the last. I never imagined having to say goodbye as I didn’t think about it. What’s clear is I did everything possible, and they (Barca) couldn’t do it because of La Liga.
\n“A lot of things have been said about me, but on my behalf we did everything I could because I wanted to stay. Last year I didn’t want to stay and I said it. This year I did and I couldn’t.
\n“I love this club. Without seeing the fans for over a year-and-a-half has been very hard. If I had imagined it [his leaving speech] I would’ve imagined the Camp Nou full and being able to say goodbye properly.”
\nMessi responded to speculation about a move to Ligue 1 by stating: \u201cParis Saint-Germain is a possibility, yes.
\n“At the moment nothing is confirmed, I received a lot of calls after the Barcelona statement. We\u2019re talking about it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Messi bid a tearful farewell to Barcelona on Sunday at a packed press conference and confirmed a switch to Paris Saint-Germain \u201cis a possibility\u201d.
\nMessi, 34, became a free agent in June after 21 years attachment, with continued \u201cfinancial and structural obstacles\u201d leading to Friday\u2019s bombshell announcement a renewal would not be signed. An incredible 672 goals were netted in 778 appearances by the Argentina icon, with 34 trophies being claimed and six Ballon d\u2019Ors.
\n\u201cThis is very difficult, I was not prepared for this. Last year I was convinced to leave, but this year we were going to stay, my family and I wanted to continue here, in our house,\u201d said Messi.
\n\u201cAfter 21 years I\u2019m leaving with my three Catalan-Argentine kids. We\u2019ve lived in this city, this is our home. I\u2019m just really grateful for everything, all my team-mates, everyone who has been by my side.
\n\u201cI gave everything for this club from the first day I arrived to the last. I never imagined having to say goodbye as I didn\u2019t think about it. What\u2019s clear is I did everything possible, and they (Barca) couldn\u2019t do it because of La Liga.
\n\u201cA lot of things have been said about me, but on my behalf we did everything I could because I wanted to stay. Last year I didn\u2019t want to stay and I said it. This year I did and I couldn\u2019t.
\n\u201cI love this club. Without seeing the fans for over a year-and-a-half has been very hard. If I had imagined it [his leaving speech] I would\u2019ve imagined the Camp Nou full and being able to say goodbye properly.\u201d
\nMessi responded to speculation about a move to Ligue 1 by stating: \u201cParis Saint-Germain is a possibility, yes.
\n\u201cAt the moment nothing is confirmed, I received a lot of calls after the Barcelona statement. We\u2019re talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113730,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729\/revisions\/113730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}