Jordi Évole of La Sexta has conducted a 65 minute interview with Leo Messi, where the Argentine player opened up about many topics and addressed his future, the club’s future, among other things.
Below is a full transcript of what the FC Barcelona captain had to say.
ABOUT HIS CHRISTMAS PLANS
“After the match against Valladolid, I am going to Argentina. My family has already gone there. Antonela left with the children. We (the Messi family) are a lot and we celebrate Christmas together. It is the time when we all get together. My brothers are in Argentina, my mother too… It is a unique moment, although now with this mess it is complicated. I don’t know how much the cap (on social gatherings) is, it was at 10 people, but we still don’t know.”
ON HOW HE CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS
“Both things are celebrated. We celebrate Santa Claus more but also the kings. I remember that Santa Claus always brought me balls, boots or football jerseys. I remember a ball, at that time the official ball that the tournaments used. It was very expensive at that time and for us it was difficult to get it but my dad and my mom did their best to have it for Christmas and I loved it. Then for kings a Newell’s t-shirt. Santa Claus was always good to me.”
ON SAYING YES TO THE INTERVIEW WITH ÉVOLE
“We had arranged it and when the time came to talk to you online, I didn’t think it would be about things as serious as the pandemic and I don’t like it very much, I prefer to talk about these things in my private circle. But I’m a man of my word and I told you that I was going to give you the interview and no matter how it was, I told you we were going to talk.”
ABOUT IF HE WANTED TO TALK
“Yes.”
ABOUT WHO MAKES HIM GET UP FROM THE COUCH
“When I started to be a professional and really dedicate myself to this, the passion or the fan inside me was put aside. Today what makes me get up from the couch are my children. That I have to run after them. They are three. That is what moves me the most today.”
ABOUT WHICH ATHLETES HE ADMIRES
“There are many athletes who are admirable. Rafa Nadal, Federer, LeBron … In all sports there is an athlete who stands out and is admirable for his work and for what he does on a daily basis. Cristiano in football… There are many… I admire all the athletes who stand out.”
ON IF HE PLAYS ON THE PLAYSTATION
“No, not really, but since Thiago was born I stopped playing a lot. Before I was on there all day but with the birth of my son it changed. Now that Thiago starts playing, I go back to playing with him, I’m starting to get hooked again. I play with any team, the one who chooses is Thiago, today we play with whoever he wants.”
ABOUT WHAT HE FEELS FOR THE BARÇA SHIRT
“Everything, I always said, Barcelona is my life. I have been here since I was 13 years old. I grew up both in the club and in the city. I have been living in Barcelona for longer than in my country in Argentina. I learned everything here, I grew up and the club trained me as a player and a person, it gave me everything and I always left everything for Barcelona. I have a love relationship because it is what I experienced since I arrived here, the love I have for the city, the club and everything I have to do with Barcelona, my children were born here too. I’m not one that does a lot to do with pretending, what I feel comes out at the moment.”
ABOUT WHAT A SHIRT COSTS AND IF THEY GIVE THEM TO THE PLAYERS
“Eighty? Ninety? The ones used in matches, they do give them to us, but then if we want to give gifts we have to buy them like everyone else. They don’t give us much discount.”
ABOUT HOW HE IS
“Well, the truth is that I’m fine today, it’s true that I had a very bad time all of the summer. Before the summer because of how the season ended, then what happened in summer came, the burofax and all that, and then the truth is that I dragged it a bit during the beginning but today I feel good and wanting to fight seriously for everything we have ahead of us, excited, I know that the club is going through a very difficult time at the institutional and team level and everything that surrounds Barcelona has become difficult but I face it with excitement.”
ABOUT THE CLUB’S ECONOMY
“For this reason (the pandemic), it is a difficult moment for the club, as for everyone, but from what we know the club is really bad (financially), very bad and it will be difficult to get back to where it was.”
ABOUT HIS GESTURES
“I don’t manage by pretending, I am who I am and I have the reactions I have, I do what comes out of my heart at the moment and how I feel day by day, what comes out comes out. I can’t think of what each one thinks because otherwise I would go crazy. Many people talk without knowing, more and more. Today you can tell any lie and nothing happens, the lie remains there and people believe it because people who consume newspapers and television believe practically everything and not always everything is true but I can’t control that.”
ABOUT WHETHER HE HAS CRIED LATELY
“For sports issues I did not cry but I did suffer a lot, and then for other issues I did cry which I prefer not to go into details. But for sports issues I suffered a lot.”
ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BARCELONA AT 13 YEARS OLD
“It was a difficult moment because I was 13 years old and I left everything: friends, country, school … everything. I changed my life completely and came to a place where I did not know anyone and on top of that with my personality, that I am shy, it became difficult, the family separated. My sister at that time was five years old and suffered more than me and my mother had to return to Argentina. My brother, who had his life already in Argentina, decided to return. When we were alone with my father, he said ‘whatever you want to do, decide what you want to do, whether to continue here in search of your dream or we will return and resume the life of before’, and I was very clear that I wanted to stay. Everything was very fast. The first year, at first, I couldn’t play for months, but I started playing and the first game I got injured. I don’t remember if I wasn’t warmed up or what… The first year was tough.”
ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF HIS ARRIVAL
“It was an important experience that helped me to grow and form as a person. At that time I was shy. I made a shell and nothing entered me. I was thinking about what I wanted and trying to achieve my dream. Focus on training and on the games, and at school, and gradually I made normal friendships. I was already very private and today I still find it difficult to share things, especially the bad things. I am about keeping everything and eating it alone, not expressing it and to weather it as I can alone.”
ABOUT WHETHER HE IS IN THE SCHOOL PARENT WHATSAPP GROUP
“No, Antonela is there.”
ABOUT WHAT HE LIKES TO DO WITH HIS CHILDREN
“I like to be with them. I like when they ask me to play soccer or play something related to sports. I like when they ask me to bathe with me or come to sleep in my bed. I enjoy everything that is being with my children. I love spending time with them. Every night they appear in bed. Thiago no longer does and Mateo already comes directly to our bed, Ciro too. Sometimes we are the five of us sleeping in bed.”
ABOUT THE CARTOONS HIS KIDS WATCH
“The time for Peppa Pig is over. Thiago had a lot with the Canine Patrol, and now he is very interested in the topic of seeing people things on YouTube. Children like watching videos and games. They gawk at the iPads and the TV, we try not to let them be like that but they are there all the time.”
ON IF HE IS HITCHED TO HIS MOBILE
“Quite the truth, yes. Everything, the mobile, iPad… They all made everything change a little.”
ABOUT IF AT HOME THEY WATCH DORAEMON
“(Laughs). Thiago watches Dragon Ball or Pokemon.”
ON IF THEY MADE A JOKE IN THE DRESSING ROOM ABOUT BARTOMEU AND NOBITA (a character from Doraemon)
“Someone did it, I never called him Nobita.”
ON HOW HIS FAME AFFECTS HIS CHILDREN
“Thiago suffers a lot. He is like me. Introverted and shy and that they come and tell him about that and he has a bad time. He has gotten used to it. He is lucky that he has companions since he was 3 or 4 years old who are the same and they protect him and themselves and get him out of all that. Mateo handles it better.”
ABOUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE APPROACHED HIM FOR FRIENDSHIP
“For this topic I am difficult. I have my people, my friends and I am very selective when it comes to choosing who to be with and the truth is that I do, but I think I could always see or intuit it and I always handled it myself.”
ABOUT HIS LIFE
“It’s very normal. Sometimes it’s boring. I can explain it to you. We get up in the morning, have breakfast, go to school,I go to train, I return. Right away, I go with Antonela to pick up the kids and we go home, we do some activity, for example Thiago and Mateo are playing football twice a week. We go with them, we come back and it is already 7 or 8, we have some mates, sometimes eight thirty we are eating and we finish and we go up and we are all, we end up watching TV and little else.”
ABOUT IF HE GOES TO THE SUPERMARKET
“Sometimes I have gone. Not always but sometimes I have gone to the supermarket. In fact, I like to go. The truth is that I do not go often but I have gone.”
ON IF HE HAS GONE TO A REGULAR MARKET
“No, because a lot of people get together but sometimes it’s complicated. Getting into places where there are a lot of people is difficult.”
ABOUT THAT HE IS KNOWN A LOT IN HIS AREA
“I’ve lived here for ten years, it’s normal for me to go to the restaurant. Castelldefels and Gavá are small, I know everything.”
ABOUT THE RESTAURANTS HE GOES TO
“I’ve been to all those, I’ve been to the Casanova Beach Club, I’m a friend of the owner. El Chalito, which is Argentine food. I don’t know, there are so many that I’m surely forgetting a lot.”
ON IF HE GETS THAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE IT BAD AT THE MOMENT
“Obviously we are aware of what is happening, people think that we are in a bubble and we do not care about anything, that we earn a lot of money, which is true, but that we do not care about anything, and that is a lie. We live reality like any other, each one is as it is and each one follows it in one way or another. I like to find out what is happening and how we are and I am aware of how we live.”
ABOUT WHAT BOTHERS HIM ABOUT BEING MESSI
“I am privileged for all that I had to live, it is not that it bothers me but there are times that I would like to be anonymous and enjoy going to a market, a movie, a restaurant, the supermarket, without anyone looking at me and watching to see what I do and having 300 eyes looking at me. I am always grateful for the affection that I experienced around the world is spectacular. When I am with my children I would like to go unnoticed.”
ON IF HIS FAMILY WAS POOR
“My family was not poor but it was a lower middle class family, I never lacked anything, we lived well but not with great luxuries.”
ON IF HE KNOWS HOW MUCH MONEY HE HAS
“Yes, I know what I have, what I do, what I don’t do. I’m aware of everything.”
ON THE RETURN OF FOOTBALL AFTER THE LOCKDOWN IN SPAIN DUE TO THE PANDEMIC
“It may be that it was the right decision but it was not up to us. It was good for the people who were confined without being able to leave their homes and with how bad things were to be distracted with football.”
ON PLAYING WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE
“Horrible, it is very ugly. It is a strange feeling of going out to the stadium so big and there is no one, everything is very cold, the truth is that it is ugly and the feeling is very bad, and I suppose that seeing it must be strange, boring and different, and I think that is why the results are also being seen, everything makes it more equal. It is not the same to come to the Camp Nou and that the stadium is bursting for the team to come out and there is no one, the feeling is different and you play differently. The matches are more even and uglier.”
ABOUT THE CALENDAR
“What matters to them is to play and comply with television contracts, sponsors and everything that can be done and the athlete is not thought about. Playing Sunday, Wednesday and if necessary Friday and Saturday. It is looked at more for the economic interest than for the sport or the game itself.”
ON HOW HE LEARNED OF MARADONA’S DEATH
“I was here at home and I got a message from my dad and right away I turned on the TV and started watching things and I found out about everything.”
ABOUT WHAT HE FELT
“It’s crazy, I couldn’t believe it. We all knew that he wasn’t okay, but no one imagined that what happened would happen, no one expected it and no one can believe that Maradona has died and that Diego is no longer there and that it really happened. It was terrible and crazy. “
ON IF HE IMAGINED HIS OWN FUNERAL
“The truth is that I do not imagine it or want to think about it. It was normal because of what Diego was, because of what he did for Argentina and what the Argentine feels for him. Madness was to be expected when we said farewell to him because Diego deserved everything.”
ON IF HE THINKS ABOUT DEATH
“No.”
ON IF HE IS AFRAID OF DEATH
“Sometimes I am. I think not about death but about what will happen when I am gone. How will my loved ones continue, what will there be, how will my children, my family react… But I don’t think of it much, I try to think of it very few times.”
ABOUT THE MARADONA T-SHIRT
“The people of Newell’s gave it to me, at the time they gave it to me and I kept it with me and it seemed to me that it was time to do so.”
ON WHETHER HE WAS DETERMINED TO SCORE
“The truth is, yes, and that came from playing games without scoring goals, that day I knew that I had to score a goal and it was strange. In a play out of nowhere, when I least looked for it, the goal appeared.”
ON THE FEMALE PLAYER WHO REFUSED TO OBSERVE A MINUTE OF SILENCE FOR MARADONA
“Everyone is free to give their opinion and do what they want, surely not everyone likes or has liked Maradona. At the sporting level and what he did in football is known to everyone. Then, his way of living, some will like things and others will not, and each one is free to act as one wants.”
ABOUT HIS POLITICAL POSITION
“I really don’t like talking about politics, as I don’t like giving my opinion on the pandemic. I try to listen to everyone and learn. I like to talk to my people and give my opinion, but in a closed circle. People have turned politics into something very strange, more than political parties they look like football teams, people become a fan of one and cannot say otherwise because there is already a fight and there are frictions, you have to enter into discussions. It’s the same here as in Argentina, if you become one you have to fight with the other and it is to the death one or the other. And the truth is that I do not see it that way. I want the best for my country and whoever is there I would like them to do things better to change things and that those who have the least can live well, have food and do not suffer and raise the country, either in Spain, which is where I live or in Argentina, which is my country.”
ON WHETHER HE IS ON THE LEFT WING OR THE RIGHT
“No, I’m telling you, I have nothing in particular. The only thing I want is for whoever is in charge to do things well and take the country forward without stealing and without doing strange things, giving the best for a better country.”
ABOUT HIM BEING A BAD LOSER
“I don’t know, since I was little it’s something that was always like this. I lost and cried or fought with my brothers when they charged me because they beat me. I’m very competitive, in the heat of the moment I don’t think and say and do what I do. It goes out and then I regret it, but I’m like that. I’ve been fiercely competitive since I was little.”
ABOUT THE 8-2
“For everyone, because of how the game was played, because of the manner of losing, you can lose, I have lost many times and we have to accept it. But it was a hard moment because of how it was lost, especially because we knew it was a difficult game, we came dragging down a difficult year. We could lose but not the way we did.”
ON WHETHER HIS CHILDREN CRITICISED HIM
“No, I talked a little but without saying much, but there are games out there that we lost and they tell me: what, they lost. And Ciro when I go to train he asks me: “Did you win?” I don’t know where he got it from. Yes they are beginning to comment.”
ON WHETHER BEING THE BEST GENERATES ANXIETY
“No, because I don’t take it that way, I don’t play to be praised. I play to win, give my team the maximum and give my best in each game, not to show off and be said to be the best.”
ON IF HE HAS GONE TO A PSYCHOLOGIST
“I should have gone but never went.”
ABOUT THE REASON
“I don’t know, it’s hard for me to take that step despite knowing that I need it. They insisted that I go, Antonela many times, that I needed it. I am a person who keeps everything to myself and I don’t share it and I never took the step. I know I need it for what I do, for the day to day, for what I have to do, and that it would do me good, but I don’t.”
ON THE TOPIC OF THE BUROFAX
“It is a way to formalize it and make it official. You are saying that you want to leave but you do nothing to do it. I have been telling him all year, not all year but in the last six months I told the president many times that I was leaving, that I wanted to go, asking that he help me, that I wanted to go out and he no, no, no. It was a way of saying I want to go seriously. It is a way of making it official and that it reaches the club.”
ON IF HE WAS BOTHERED BY WHAT WAS SAID IN THE SUMMER
“Yes because I heard them say: ‘with everything the club helped you, that saved your life …’ I am eternally grateful to all that, as I just said, I also love the club, I love my city, Barcelona, and I feel that I also gave everything to the club, a lot. And that everything the club gave me I earned and I deserved it for what I did. Then there came a moment when I thought I had completed a cycle, that I needed a change, that my head needed to get out of all this, because of the problems that were in the club at that time, because of what was coming. I knew it was going to be a year of transition, of new people, of young people, and as I always said I wanted to continue fighting for more titles, to fight again for the Champions League, for the Leagues and I felt that it was the moment of change and I wanted to leave and I wanted to do it well. The president started to filter things to make me look bad and to be the bad guy in the movie and everything that happened happened, but I am assured that what I did was what I felt and what I should have done at that moment.”
ON IF HE THOUGHT ABOUT THE FANS OF BARÇA
“Yes, it was a terrible decision, very difficult to make, it was horrible, it was not easy to decide that I was leaving the club of my life, that I was going to change cities knowing that nowhere is better than here. This is the best city to live at the level of what is here, city, climate, everything… My family did not want to move, my children did not want to move, saying that we should not leave, they do not want to leave. I felt that it was the best thing at that moment for me, for everyone, that I needed that, that a cycle had been completed and it was time. It shouldn’t have been so drastic and it should have come up with a way to do it right and that it was the best for the club and for me.”
ON WHETHER SUÁREZ’S DISMISSAL CONTRIBUTED TO HIS DECISION
“No, because I had already decided before that, but it did seem crazy to me what they did with Luis, speaking in the specific case of Luis, because of how things were done, how he left, and because he left for free by paying him the remaining years of contract and they gave him to a team that was going to fight for the same goals as us. Not only the fact that he left was hard, but how he left.”
ON HOW BARTOMEU DECEIVED HIM
“(laughs) He deceived me in many things, the truth is that in many things. I prefer not to bring it up because I don’t like to talk about private things that happened, I’m not going to bring out what was said and promised but I can assure you that he deceived me in many things and in several years.”
ABOUT INFORMATION THAT THE CLUB PAID A COMPANY TO SPEAK NEGATIVELY ABOUT HIM
“The truth is that I didn’t give it more importance. There were so many things happening at the club that were much more important than that to make me think or stop to see what was happening. I didn’t really give it importance.”
ABOUT WHEN THERE WAS A ‘CLICK’
“There was not a ‘click’. It is quite a path. I know this club well, I have been here for many years, the last year was hard. We had come from before, not winning. The previous years had also been difficult because of how we had fallen, eliminated in the Champions League and all that is leading to that decision, but there is not a ‘click’ in particular but there are many circumstances.”
ON IF THEY TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD LOSE A TRIAL WITH BARÇA
“No, on the contrary. I knew that if I went to trial I was right and many lawyers had confirmed it, not just one but many lawyers, but I never wanted to leave Barcelona that way.”
ON WHETHER HE IS BEING FURTHER INVESTIGATED AT HACIENDA
“No, I don’t know. I don’t know if they investigate me further or not. I had a problem with the Treasury. I was advised by lawyers like my father, and we did everything they told us to do, it ended up being solved as you just said. All that happened and I do not complain about it, I complain about the treatment I received because it seemed to me that everything that I had to live was excessive, how it dealt with, above all, with the Madrid press, although in Barcelona there were also many who attacked me and the treatment hurt me because we saw many players and many other people have similar issues and the treatment was not the same.”
ABOUT WHETHER THE FANBASE’S PERCEPTION OF HIM IS THE SAME
“I think not. The fan supports the player who is at the club at the time but I don’t think he forgives everything.”
ON HIS MOST RECENT CONVERSATION WITH GUARDIOLA
“I do not know exactly, but we have spoken yes.”
ON IF THEY HAVE TALKED ABOUT MEETING IN ANOTHER TEAM
“No, not really.”
ABOUT GUARDIOLA AND LUIS ENQRIQUE
“Pep, for me, is the best. He has something special. He makes you see things in a certain way. I am very struck by how he prepares the matches, how he prepared defensively and how he prepared to attack. He told you exactly where the match was, how you had to attack to win the games. I was lucky that I had a lot of time with Guardiola and Luis Enrique, the two best. Having them so often and so fast made me grow a lot in football and in the tactical wisdom that they taught me. I thought that with Guardiola I knew everything and then Luis Enrique arrived who was more or less similar but he taught me even more with small details that he was changing, the same attitude to Guardiola but different details that made me something else.”
ABOUT THE RUMOR THAT MESSI IS THE ONE IN CHARGE
“That has been said for a long time but it is also said in the national team that I put technicians, that I put players, that my friends play. It’s something that bothers me that it is said. People consume and believe everything that appears in the newspaper or on TV, many believe it, that I put the players, that I do the signings and the coaches and the truth is that it is very far from reality.”
ABOUT IF THERE IS A PROJECT NOW WITH KOEMAN
“I think that with Ronald Koeman, he has given a seriousness and an idea of what he wants for the team and what he wants for the club. I think that he is a great success and that he is doing things very well and that at the beginning it is difficult because there are many new people, many young people, but little by little the team is growing.”
ABOUT THE WORDS OF TUSQUETS THAT SAID HE WOULD HAVE SOLD MESSI
“Today, I don’t need to talk about it, it has already happened. It was not time and more so because of him being a president who is a manager and has nothing to do. What happened, happened and he should not have reopened the issue, as it does not do the team or the club good.”
ON IF HE IS A MEMBER (SOCI) OF BARÇA
“Yes.”
ON IF HE WILL VOTE
“I dont know.”
ON IF HE HAS A PREFERRED CANDIDATE
“No, no. I prefer not to position myself with anyone because they already say that I manage the club, imagine if I say that I want a president. I prefer not to do it and hopefully whoever it is does the best for the club and changes the situation that we are in. It is not going to be easy because of how the club is doing, because of the pandemic issue and it will not be easy to turn this around, but hopefully whoever wins will do things well to put the club, how big it is, in the position where it deserves, which today it is not there.”
ABOUT IF HE HAS TALKED TO ANY PRECANDIDATE
“No, I have not spoken with anyone. First they have to pass the elections, they have to win and when they are president they start to handle things one by one.”
ON IF HE WILL STAY IF XAVI COMES AS COACH
“I don’t know. Let the elections pass, let whoever will win, win and then we will aim that we finish the season well so that we can get a title and in June we will see.”
ON IF HE WILL STAY IF THEY BRING NEYMAR
“It will also be difficult to bring players because you need money and there is no money. And how do you pay Paris for the transfer? It is not easy, it is going to be a difficult situation for the new president. He will have to be very intelligent, order everything and make many changes to make it go well.”
ON NEYMAR’S WORDS ABOUT PLAYING WITH MESSI
“He didn’t say we are going to play, he said he would like to play…right? Yes, we talk from time to time, the three of us (Messi, Neymar, Suarez). We maintain the relationship. With Luis I talk almost every day.”
ON IF THEY DISCUSS THE FUTURE BETWEEN THEM
“The last message we talked about was the draw that we had against them, that neither of us wanted to face the other team, because of the qualities of the teams. They did not want Barcelona either, because although today we are not in the best moment we are a team respected by history and it’s going to be a very close match.”
ABOUT HIS BEST FRIEND IN THE DRESSING ROOM
“I get along well with everyone, but I am most comfortable with the people who have been at the club the longest. With the homegrown players, who are fewer now, I have a close affinity and have more coexistence relationships.”
ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH GRIEZMANN
“The relationship is good, I already said it, I never had problems with him and I never did everything that was said, that I did not want his signing and all that, I think it was more than clarified. I have no problems, the relationship is good and sometimes we drink mate together in the dressing room and on trips, there is no tension of any kind.”
ON NEGOTIATING WITH OTHER CLUBS FROM JANUARY
“I do not have anything clear yet. I will wait for the season to end. The important thing is to think about the team, finish the year well, think about trying to get titles and not get distracted by other things.”
ÉVOLE GAVE HIM A GIFT: TWO GUIDES, ONE OF PARIS AND ONE OF MANCHESTER
“No, take them away. I know that there are many people from the club, from Barcelona, the fans, who still love me, who want me to stay at the club, I also know that there are other people who, after what happened, not so much. It’s like that, but I’m going to do what is best for the club and for me, I have no doubts, and what my heart and head tell me. I plan to return. I’m going to stay and live in Barcelona, and I want to return to Barcelona when I stop being a player. I want to be at the club, in some way, contributing what I know to something, it’s what I want and what I feel.”
ABOUT WHY HE SAYS ‘RETURN’ TO BARCELONA
“I always said that I have the illusion that I would like to enjoy the experience of living in the United States, of living that League and that life, but then if it happens or not, I don’t know, it is not a now or in the future and that is why I say ‘to return’.”
ABOUT OTHER LEAGUES THAT MIGHT INTEREST HIM
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m focused on what we have, on what can be done in these six months, I don’t think about how the season will end, because today it wouldn’t be good for me to tell you what I’m going to do because I do not know.”
ON IF HE IS HAPPIER NOW
“It was difficult for me, I was not in the place where I wanted to be, it was difficult for me to adapt to the changing room because there are many new people, of those who surrounded me there is no one or few, there are many people from outside, few from home, we are different cultures, we are all different, that makes it more difficult to unite a dressing room, but little by little we are doing it.”
ABOUT PLAYING FOR REAL MADRID
“No, impossible.”
ON PLAYING AT ATLETICO MADRID
“No”.
ABOUT WHAT HE WOULD SAY TO PEOPLE WHO THINK HE IS LEAVING
“I don’t know if I’m going to leave or not and if I go, I would like to leave in the best way, always hypothetically speaking, I would like to come back one day, I would like to return to the city, to work at the club, to contribute. I want to assure that Barcelona is much bigger than any player, even me obviously, and that I hope the president who comes will do things well to lift important titles again.”
ABOUT WHAT HE WOULD HAVE BEEN IF HE WASN’T LEO MESSI
“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it, but something related to football is what I like, what I know, but something related to football.”
ON IF HE SEES HIMSELF AS A COACH
“I don’t see myself as a coach, perhaps as a sports director to bring in players that I want or that I think the club needs, we’ll see.”
ON THE END OF HIS STORY
“It is a love story with the club since I was very little, and with the city. No matter how it ends it does not have to stain what was lived in my entire career, it is not easy to be a professional for 16 years and that everything goes well, there is always a moment that is bad, but everything can be overcome. We’ll see how it ends.”
ABOUT A WISH HE HAS
“Hopefully we end the horrible year we lived through well and that next year will be better for everyone and that we will get out of this situation a little bit.”
