A valley of tears denied the 1899 Auditorium. drama and the weeping, and the dozens of fans who piled up at the stadium longing for him already on his last trip to the Camp Nou. He was not as crowded as a footballer who has been with the club for 21 years, 17 in the first team, deserved it. Not as glorious as it could have been coinciding with the conquest of a great title. But it was sad and exciting as befits the farewell to the greatest player in the history of FC Barcelona.
“It’s the hardest and most difficult time of my career. That never comes back. This is the end “, Messi verbalized when he could, drowning again thinking about what was left behind: 21 years of life in Barcelona, 17 years playing in the first team of Barça, 778 games played and 672 goals scored, 35 titles lined up on one side of the room, in front of the place that was reserved for all his teammates and they could check what has been the contribution of the captain.
The hardest moment was the last. Despite the injuries, despite the defeats, despite the upsets, despite the blows. But the best, among trophies, thrashings, festivals, doubles and sextets, laughter and laughter, was the first. “When I debuted. It was the beginning of everything, a dream come true and what came next was wonderfulHe explained, sad and dejected, without hiding it for a moment. And it was all over.
Was finished. Badly, with the breakup, and good forms, with manners and a funeral for ceremony. Opening the auditorium contravening the will of the medical services and exceeding the capacity. With the whole staff to his left, more the technical body i of the excapitans with Carles Puyol i Xavi Hernandez, in Catalan lands training with the A el Sadd of Qatar, attended the live vigil; with his wife Antonella and his three children in the front row, absent Leo’s parents and siblings, with Joan Laporta and vice presidents and more managers behind, and the couples of Alba, Busquets and Pepe Costa, the hard core of allies. Broken to see what he had in front of him and what he left behind, with a tissue in his hand.
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«I did my best to stay. I had lowered my listing by 50% and we had closed the contract. It was all agreed, the president already said. But the club has a very big debt, they don’t want to go into debt anymore and they realized that it couldn’t be done with the issue, in addition, of the League, which didn’t allow it “, summed up Messi, in a speech very similar to that of Joan Laporta, who appeared Friday. A modern version of it all killed her and she herself died.
There were no reproaches and in any case they were overlapped. Messi he did not deny the president although he left the doubt hanging by saying “I did everything I could” and stressing that he did not know what was “the fabric” of LaLiga, the impediment of the organization of Javier Tebas, to re-register Messi.
Perhaps they were the two rejected formulas proposed by Barça, or that the employers did not believe that Messi, the best in the world, with a contract, apparently, of 160 million per year were reduced in the first year, to 20 million more 30 signing premium. The footballer denied that on Thursday, when he returned from Ibiza to sign – he also confirmed it – he had been asked for an additional 30% discount.
“I can’t say anything more, I’ve put everything on my side,” he insisted, not wanting to leave anyone in the spotlight. Messi he agreed to cut his overall salary in half, a rebate that other colleagues have rejected. The salary limit was not broken only by him, but the sum of all the contracts of the staff, out of phase 40% with respect to the top level staff. Laporta’s management has not been able since March, when he joined the club, to articulate a proposal that would shield Messi’s continuity, as promised by the president. Bartomeu’s disastrous legacy, with the bestial debt he has left, tying his hands and feet to his successor, and Tebas’ intransigence to apply the accounting flexibility suggested by FIFA and UEFA as a result of the pandemic, have installed Messi in front of the door .
Forty minutes was up on the podium. Ground. Assuming the trance. Crying from the second u, unable to articulate a word, overwhelmed by emotions rather than lack of words, still unable to prepare a speech since Thursday, “going around in these last hours on what to say, I did not leave anything, blocked” to be pushed towards the exit door. When no one, not even him, was contemplating it.
“Last year I did want to leave. When he put together the whole mess with the burofax, he knew what he had to say. But this year, this year… we were convinced that we would continue here at home, which is what we wanted most, enjoying this club, of our daily life here, which is wonderful », were the first words he chained. A year ago, his children to three Catalan-Argentine children “cried more than the father when he told them they were leaving.” This time it was the other way around. “We’ll be back here, because it’s our home, because so I promised my children».
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