The Argentine striker made an ultimately fruitless attempt to leave the club in the summer of 2020.
Lionel Messi’s notorious burofax, which he shipped off previous Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu last year trying to design a move away from Camp Nou, has now been uncovered.
Messi communicated his longing to leave Barca soon after their Champions League whipping because of Bayern Munich in August 2020 and accepted there was a provision in his agreement that permitted him to leave for nothing, regardless of having one more year left on his deal.
The Catalan side questioned the case and Messi at last yielded, however he would just remain for one more year prior to moving to PSG.
The burofax, got by Mundo Deportivo, is dated August 24, 2020, nine days after Barcelona’s embarrassing 8-2 Champions League defeat by Bayern and a day after the German side lifted the trophy with triumph in the final against PSG.
Messi’s agreement had a clause that specified he could leave in the event that he mentioned to do as such before June 10, 2020 – the scheduled end of the 2019-20 season.
That deadline was clearly missed, yet Messi contended the postponements brought about by the Covid pandemic implied the clause was as yet valid.
He refered to compel majeure, which is a clause regularly used in agreements that keeps one or the two players from satisfying their obligations in light of an unforeseen event out of their control, with the pandemic being such an event.
“I understand that the time frame of the right of unilateral termination without cause regulated by the aforementioned clause must be interpreted in accordance with the exceptional circumstances in which the 2019/20 football competition season has taken place, due to the state of emergency and the situation of force majeure resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic,” read the burofax.
“Due to these exceptional circumstances, the 2019/20 competition season ended yesterday, without prejudice to the fact that for our team, this end took place on August 15, when we returned to Barcelona after our elimination from the Champions League on the night of August 14.
“In any case, within 10 days following the end of the season of competition, and thus meeting the agreed deadline for exercising the aforementioned clause 3.1., in accordance with the material contract of our agreement, which must be interpreted in accordance with the exceptional circumstances of the 2019/20 season, I exercise my right to terminate the contract with effect from August 30, 2020, with the consequences provided for in the aforementioned stipulation 3.1.”
Barcelona questioned the case and it seemed as though the issue would should be chosen in the courts before Messi withdrew and decided to remain.
Barca trusted that Joan Laporta’s return as president and a fire-sale of players to raise funds would permit them to secure Messi to a new agreement.
They prevailed with regards to convincing Messi to remain, yet in the wake of permitting his agreement to expire in June they couldn’t re-register him La Liga because of the club’s financial limitations.
A weepy Messi consequently declared his Barca departure a few days after the fact, prior to taking the staggering action to Parc des Princes.
