Lionel Messi CONFIRMS move to Inter Miami FC… HOURS after snubbing Barcelona and Saudi Arabia

Lionel Messi has confirmed that he will be moving to MLS side Inter Miami FC.

In a statement with Mundo Deportivo he said ‘I’m not going back to Barça, I’m going to Inter Miami.’ 

‘I made the decision that I’m going to go to Miami. I still haven’t closed it one hundred percent. I’m missing some things but we decided to continue on the path. If the Barcelona thing didn’t come out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight and think more in my family,’ says Messi. 

Speaking on the potential rumours that he could return to Barcelona, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner said: ‘I really wanted [to return to Barcelona], I was very excited to be able to return, but after having experienced what I experienced and the exit I had, I did not want to be in the same situation again: waiting to see what was going to happen and leaving my future in hand from another.

‘I wanted to make my own decision, thinking about myself, about my family. Although I heard that it was said that LaLiga had accepted everything and that everything was fine for him to return, there were still many other things that had to be done.

‘I heard that they [Barcelona] had to sell players or lower players’ salaries and the truth is that I didn’t want to go through that, nor take charge of obtaining something that had to do with all that’. 

‘I have already been accused of many things that were not true in my career at Barcelona and I was already a bit tired, I didn’t want to go through all that. And well, the time I had to leave, LaLiga had also accepted that they sign me up and in the end it couldn’t be done. 

‘Well, I was afraid that the same thing would happen again and I had to go through the bullfight as it happened, that I had to come here to Paris to stay in a hotel for a long time with my family, with my children going to school and still being in the hotel… I wanted to make my own decision and that’s why it was a bit that I didn’t turn to Barça. Although I would have loved it, it couldn’t. 

‘I am also in a moment where I want to get out of focus a bit, think more about my family. As I was just saying, I spent two years at a family level that was so bad that I didn’t enjoy it. I had the month that was spectacular for me for having won the World Cup, but removing that was a difficult stage for me.’

‘I made the decision that I am going to go to Miami. I still haven’t closed it one hundred percent. I’m missing some things but we decided to continue the path.’ 

More to follow…