There are no winners after the Argentinian superstar was bluntly honest in saying he is only staying to avoid court
No smile, no handshake and no reconciliation. Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona but this was no happy ending. It is over, for now, yet there is no real closure and no one truly got what they wanted, maybe not even Josep Maria Bartomeu. A survivor clinging to power, he will no longer preside over the departure of the best player in the club’s history but nor will he evade responsibility for it. His victory, if that is what this was, is hollow one. Messi made sure of that.
The prospect of his leaving after 20 years at Barcelona was sad and has been avoided for nine months but that was never the worst part. The worst part was that it had got to the point he wanted to leave; that things were so bad, so broken, he would turn his back on it all. And that remains; it has not been fixed by Messi staying, still less by Bartomeu surviving. “I wanted to be happy,” Messi said, “and I didn’t find happiness at the club.”