Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi has confirmed his future lies with Barcelona despite his efforts to leave earlier in 2020.
Speaking to Spanish TV network La Sexta, Messi confirmed that he would like to stay in Spain following the end of his contract this season.
Messi will be free to negotiate from January, and despite a fallout with the hierarchy of the club earlier in the year, he claims that it's where he belongs.
According to Spanish outlet AS, Messi dismissed speculations he will be exercising his option of a free transfer departure, saying: "Far from it – my plan is to give all I can for the club at the moment."
However, he has spoken of his prospects of one day playing in the United States.
"I would like to play in the United States and experience life and the league there, but ultimately come back to Barcelona in some capacity. I'm not thinking too far ahead in the short term and just want to see how the season finishes."
The star famously fell out with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, branding his presidency a "disaster".
Messi claimed he decided not to pursue a legal battle to leave out of respect for the club but reiterated the depth of his feelings about Bartomeu's reign at the time.
"It was far from easy for me to say I wanted to leave the club and the city ... but I genuinely felt it was time to go," Messi said.
"I felt I'd completed a cycle and it was time to leave the club that had given me so much. I wanted to win titles and battle for the Champions League and felt it was time for change. The president then started to filter this and that to paint a negative picture of me."
Bartomeu resigned in October, with his exit seemingly cementing Messi's decision to stick around.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/football/lionel-messi-to-stay-in-barcelona-but-wants-to-play-in-united-states/168ebaec-7dbe-4931-b6ec-5b0d59d42ae2
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