Messi’s farewell
Lionel Messi began crying before he even started speaking. The “most difficult” moment of his career had arrived and he wasn’t ready for it. It was time to say goodbye to Barcelona after more than two decades with the Catalan club.
MADRID — Lionel Messi began crying before he even started speaking. The “most difficult” moment of his career had arrived and he wasn’t ready for it.
It was time to say goodbye to Barcelona after more than two decades with the Catalan club.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to speak,” he said while trying to compose himself during his farewell news conference at the Camp Nou Stadium on Sunday. “It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m leaving this club, that my life will be changing completely. It will be a difficult change for me and especially for my family. But we have to accept it and move on.”
Messi struggled to control his emotions and cried profusely as he stepped up to the podium at the Camp Nou.
“This is very hard for me after so many years, after being here my entire life,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared.”
Messi said that, unlike last year when he asked to leave, he had his mind set on staying with Barcelona and did everything possible to make it happen, including reducing his salary by 50%. He said he was surprised to hear he wouldn’t be able to stay because of the club’s debt and the Spanish league’s financial fairplay regulations.
Messi’s family and some of his teammates were at the Camp Nou for the emotional farewell. He was applauded several times by those in the audience.
Messi, 34, avoided speaking specifically about his future, saying he received offers from several clubs after the announcement that he would leave the Catalan club. When asked about Paris Saint-Germain, considered the frontrunner to sign him, Messi admitted it was “a possibility.”
“At this moment I don’t have a deal with any club,” he said.