Barcelona have issued a statement in response to Camp Nou legend Lionel Messi opting not to return to the club this summer, instead choosing to join MLS side Inter Miami instead.
Messi publicly communicated his decision to Miami in an interview with two Barcelona-based newspapers on Wednesday night.
In the process of taking his career to a brand new continent, he turned down the advances of his former team. Messi himself admitted that he was really keen to head back to Barcelona, but wasn’t prepared for a repeat of the uncertainty that surrounded his 2021 exit.
In its statement, the club also appears to have offered a slightly different version of events of what happened. Messi himself suggested that negotiations never got as far as being presented with a formal contract offer by Barcelona, which was part of the reason he looked elsewhere.
Barcelona implied his reasons for turning down a return were different.
