Lionel Messi is staying with Barcelona for the time being, confirming his U-turn in a gripping and emotional interview with Goal Spain.
The Argentine, 33, sent a fax to Barca last Tuesday saying he wanted to exercise a clause in his contract which he said allowed him to leave for free.
But the club said his 700m euro (£624m) release clause would have to be met.
“I thought and was sure that I was free to leave,” Messi told Goal.
“The president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not.,” he added.
“Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700m clause, and that this is impossible,” the player said.
Messi, whose contract expires next summer, says the fact he did not tell Barca he wanted to leave before 10 June was crucial, and had he done so his release clause would not have had to be met.
“Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before 10 June, when it turns out that on 10 June we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season,” he added.
“There was another way and it was to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived. It is the club of my life, I have made my life here,” he stated.
