Not "Free To Leave" Messi Staying At Barcelona

Barcelona's all-time leading goalscorer Lionel Messi says he is staying because it is "impossible" for any team to pay his release clause and he does not want to face "the club I love" in court.

The Argentine, 33, sent a fax to Barca last Tuesday saying he wanted to exercise a clause in his contract which he said allowed him to leave for free.

But the club said his 700m euro (£624m) release clause would have to be met.

"I thought and was sure that I was free to leave," Messi told Goal.

"I told the president and, well, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not keep his word.

"Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700m clause, and that this is impossible."

- bbc.com