“I told Messi that if he wanted to go to another continent … but he wanted to be free”

In the interviews he gives to Sport, Mundo Deportivo and L’Esportiu this Friday, Josep Maria Bartomeu, former president of Barça, not only defends his management as was already read this Thursday in the progress of the media websites. He also points his finger and attacks Laporta for letting Messi go. “It is said by someone who fought for him to stay in the summer of 2020; I have always thought that it was essential. Letting Messi go was a bad decision, a mistake,” Bartomeu censors.

“It is essential that he be with us for his sporting and institutional contribution. I’ve always thought of it that way. Represents much more than a footballer who falls in love (…) Why was he not happy? You have to ask Leo (…). That there was no project? In 2019 we won LaLiga and it was a triplet year, We lost a match in which Liverpool was not given an option … “, explains in Mundo Deportivo.

“I told him that if he wanted to go like Xavi and Iniesta, to Qatar, China or the United States, something we understood, we can talk about it. and we will do a tribute and a farewell. But Messi did not have a team yet and he wanted to be free. We told him: ‘We want Barça to be your last club in Europe. If you want to go to another continent later, no problem. But we want you to continue and that was a bit of the story of the summer of 2020. ‘ Us telling him that we wanted him to go on and him, who wanted to leave. But without knowing where. I always asked him where he wanted to go“, reveals the former president of Barcelona.

In addition, Bartomeu makes a revelation that hints at the power of the players in the last years of his tenure: “Coutinho is a signing loved by the coaches, who warms up when Iniesta tells us that it is his last year. We try to make him stay and prefers not to accept. And if. Messi and Suárez, among others, insisted that Coutinho was a great signing“.

About Dembélé. “Dembélé has had bad luck, he is a great player and I hope he now shows his quality. In 2020, after the ‘no’ to Ansu, An English club asked us to sign Dembélé for more than we paid for him. But we were counting on him. In January 2018 we signed Coutinho, proven, the best in the Premier, and due to circumstances he has not triumphed like there and his team. “

The signing of Griezmann. “Planning has always existed, especially with him. He had been working for a long time and if it was paid, there was money. There was no deferred payment agreement, as is done with many clubs, but a direct payment of the clause. If it was paid, the money was there “.

The credit to sign Griezmann. “I don’t know if it was a day or two or three before, but we try to sign as late as possible to pay less interest, but I don’t think it was the same day or the night before, surely days before.”