Lionel Messi Breaks Silence, Confirms He's Staying At Barcelona Next Season 'To Avoid Legal Dispute'

Lionel Messi: Barcelona Legend released an official statement to confirm that he's staying at Barcelona next season 'to avoid legal dispute'.

Lionel Messi is set to stay at Barcelona for next season where he has spend the entirety of his football career. The big shocking U-turn by Messi comes after he decided to bid adieu to Barcelona after the Catalan giant's humiliating 2-8 loss to Bayern Munich in 2020 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. The sudden request by Messi lead to a legal tiff between him and the club over a clause in his contract.

Many reports suggest that a clause in Messi’s contract allowed him to unilaterally leave the club as a free agent at the end of each season. However, Barcelona said the deadline for triggering that clause expired in June and that it would seek legal advice.

In a statement on Sunday, LaLiga supported Barcelona, had said 'anyone who wants to buy Messi will have to pay his 700-million-euro release clause.'

"I thought and was sure that I was free to leave, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not," Messi told Goal.

"Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before June 10, when it turns out that on June 10 we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season.

"And this is the reason why I am going to continue in the club. 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 (£624m) clause, and that this is impossible."

"There was another way and it was to go to trial," he added. "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.

"Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything. I know that it never crossed my mind to take Barca to court."

On an individual level, Messi has won the Ballon d'Or a record six times, including winning the World's top footballer accolades for a record four straight times between 2009 and 2012 as well as the most recent award in 2019.