Year in Review 2020, Biggest Sports Stories: Lionel Messi says he wants to leave Barcelona

Editor’s Note: It’s that time of the year already. Every end comes with an opportunity to look back and reflect, and while 2020, by general consensus, was a forgettable affair, sports did manage to conjure some moments of lasting relevance. From Liverpool ending their Premier League title wait to the mighty Indian cricket team crashing like never before in Adelaide to the passing away of some of sports’ all-time greats, the field of play, even in a truncated calendar, produced a fair share of shock, surprise, and awe. In Firstpost’s latest series, we take a look at some of the biggest sporting moments of 2020. This was a classic workplace scenario. A disgruntled employee itching to get out of the rut, and a presumably thankless employer trying its best to extract the last ounce of productivity from the said employee. Only, the employee was Lionel Messi, and the employer FC Barcelona. You know who won the perception battle. The Argentine, 33, had made no secret of his desire to move on. He was reportedly disillusioned with the club that he believed was regressing. Gaping holes were dealt with quick fixes, the decision-making was uninspiring, and in the last lap of his career, Messi evidently didn’t want to traverse the field carrying the crushing burden of inadequacy and inefficiency. The final straw arrived in the shape of a historic humiliation . The Champions League quarter-final in Lisbon saw Barca sink to a 2-8 mauling at the hands of Bayern Munich, expediting the divorce proceedings between the club and their most successful player. Bayern were everything that Barca were not – quick, young, enterprising, relentless, and scoring – and truth be told, not many teams would have outscored Robert Lewandowski and his full-pressing men. Still, 2-8 was a result hard to explain. Days later, came the famous burofax . Messi wanted to be set free. A precocious footballer, perhaps an all-time great, and most certainly the greatest the club has ever had playing out his entire career for the same club would have made for a perfect fairytale, but Messi had had enough. The frustration had bubbled over. Messi, contract-bound with Barca till the end of 2020-21 season, sought to activate the exit clause that allowed him to leave by 10 June, 2020. However, with the coronavirus situation having thrown the football calendar off-gear, Barca reckoned the clause could not be activated, unless the interested party pays up his exit clause of 700 million euros. Messi had the option to take the legal route, of course, but he decided against it. As things stand, with Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu gone , Messi having scaled the magical 644-goal mountain at Barca and having re-professed his love for the club , and former president Joan Laporta having stated his confidence to convince Messi to stay back, the Argentine’s future is anybody’s guess. It’ll be equally interesting to see which way the tide turns post the 24 January presidential elections at FC Barcelona. Either way, Messi’s public desire to leave Barcelona, ending a two-decade association with a club was one of the biggest sports stories of the year 2020. The headlines were finalised. The statistics were ready. The platitudes were pouring. ‘Signed on a napkin, departing via a burofax,’ was keyed in. Then, Messi hung on, but only just. **Click here for more stories in 'Year in Review 2020' series**