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Won’t take the club
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that the future may be brighter under new coach Ronald Koeman.
His reason for wanting to leave were simple: “I always said I wanted to end here. That I wanted a winning project and to win titles with the club to continue expanding the legend of Barcelona at the title level. And the truth is that there has been no project or anything for a long time, they juggle and cover holes as things go by. As I said before, I always thought about the welfare of my family and the club “
He also offered his version on the bombshell burofax to the Barcelona board, in which Messi told the club he wished to exercise an exit clause in his contract.
“The burofax was to make it official in some way. Throughout the year I had been telling the president that I wanted to go, that the time had come to seek new illusions and new directions in my career. He told me all the time: ‘We’ll talk, no, this and that,’ but nothing. Sending the burofax was making it official that I wanted to go and that I was free and the optional year I was not going to use it and I wanted to go. It was not to make a mess, or to go against the club, but the way to make it official because my decision had been made.
Messi also spoke of the pain that he felt when his loyalty was doubted, saying: “It hurt me when my love for this club was questioned. No matter how much I go or stay, my love for Barça will never change.”
He admitted to being hurt by the idea that he would leave for money. “The money? Every year I was able to leave and earn more money than at Barcelona. I always said that this was my home and it was what I felt and feel. Better than here it is difficult. I felt that I needed a change and new goals, new things “
Ultimately, although some discontent simmered as he felt Josep Maria Bartomeu “did not end up keeping his word”, Messi said he could never take Barcelona to court.
“Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700 million clause, that this is impossible. And another way is to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, that gave me everything since I arrived, it is the club of my life, I have made my life here.”

Turkey must drop ‘threats’ for talks to begin: Greek PM
Afp, Athens
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis yesterday said Turkey should drop “threats” against his country if talks on reducing tension in the eastern Mediterranean are to begin.
“Let threats go away so that the contacts can begin,” Mitsotakis said as he met a visiting senior member of the Chinese Communist party.
Mitsotakis said that Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias would brief UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Turkey’s “lawless activity”.
Greece denied late Thursday that it had agreed to hold NATO-brokered talks with Turkey to de-escalate tensions over maritime borders and gas exploration rights.
“Published information claiming Greece and Turkey have agreed to hold so-called ‘technical talks’ on de-escalating tensions in the eastern Mediterranean do not correspond to reality,” Greece’s foreign ministry said.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg had earlier said the two Nato allies had “agreed to enter into technical talks at Nato to establish mechanisms for military de-confliction to reduce the risk of incidents and accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean”.
The ministry stressed that “de-escalation will only take place with the immediate withdrawal of all Turkish vessels from the Greek continental shelf”.
Tensions are running high over Turkey’s drilling activities, which Greece and Cyprus say violate their sovereignty.
Turkey deployed the Oruc Reis research vessel and warships to the disputed waters on August 10 and has since prolonged the mission.
Greece responded by staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates, not far from smaller ones Turkey conducted between Cyprus and Crete last week.
The European Union has been watching the escalating row with growing concern, repeatedly urging Turkey to stop the exploration activities and threatening to slap sanctions on Ankara if it refused to solve the dispute through dialogue.
Mitsotakis said Turkey was “undermining” international law and “endangering” regional security by seeking to “alter” geography.