Messi wants to stay at Barcelona

BARCELONA: It has been a turbulent season at Barca, who trail LaLiga leaders Real Madrid by a point, with a recent coaching change sparking an angry exchange between Messi and director of football Eric Abidal.

That was followed by allegations Barca hired a social media firm to criticise key figures associated with the club in a bid to protect president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s reputation.

Bartomeu denies the claim but Messi said he could “see weird things happening” at the club in a pre-released extract from an interview with Catalan sports publication Mundo Deportivo.

But in the full interview published on Thursday, the Argentina captain vowed he is going nowhere — despite the reported existence of a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for nothing this summer. “I have said many times that my idea is (to stay) and as long as the club continue to want that, there will never be a problem,” the 32-year-old said.

“I want to win another Champions League, I want to continue winning LaLiga and I always aspire to that. I have always had the choice, there were many interested clubs willing to pay the release clause, but it never occurred to me to leave and does not now either. I love Barcelona, this is my home.”

Abidal was critical of the Barca squad after Ernesto Valverde was sacked, accusing them of not working hard enough for the former coach.

Messi, who was close to Valverde, said: “I don’t know what happened to make him say that but I responded because I felt attacked. I felt he was attacking the players.

“Too much is said about the dressing room, that we force coaching changes or bring in players, and especially about me - like I have a lot of power and make the decisions. The same happened to me in the Argentine national team. It bothered me coming from someone from the club... to put the players in the middle of the dismissal of the coach seemed crazy. (Abidal) is the one who makes the decisions and has to take charge.”