Legendary Mexican striker Hugo Sanchez, who scored 208 goals in a seven-year spell with Real Madrid, believes that Lionel Messi was forced to stay at Barcelona against his wishes due to poor advice from his father Jorge.
The seismic saga surrounding Messi’s future was resolved this week after the wantaway star confirmed that he would stay with Barcelona for at least one more season following a dispute between the player and the club he has represented since he was a boy.
Messi has a clause in his contract which allows him to leave on a free transfer at the end of each season, but only if he informs the club of his decision by June 10.
Messi, along with his father and representative Jorge, maintained that the terms in the contract were still valid in August due to the COVID-extended season, but this was struck down by both the Barcelona hierarchy and La Liga’s any club that wants to force through a transfer for the six-time Ballon d’Or winner will be required to pay a release clause of €700 million ($829 million).
However, Sanchez claims that Messi and his father demonstrated poor planning in their desire to arrange a move away from Catalonia and the burofax they sent to the club informing them of their intentions was never going to be accepted.
“That untimely burofax only strengthened the image of the president of Barcelona and gave him time to weaken Messi’s decision,” Sanchez told ESPN.
“Messi has had no choice but to stay at Barcelona due to bad advice from his father and the law firm, because they could have saved that burofax. That has caused weakness to his image within the team.
“Coincidentally, Messi had the lawyers who had previously worked with Barcelona, but due to a conflict of interest, the Catalan club changed its strategy.
“If Messi and his father already had the decision to leave Barcelona, they should not have waited in time.
“But before the end of the term agreed in the contract, they had to tell the club that they wanted to leave at the end of the season and on a free, without paying any compensation. If they had it planned, it should have been done that way.
“Messi’s second problem was to send that burofax without certainty and guaranteeing that they had a team that would pay the €700 million, which, due to the pandemic, no team in the world that can invest that amount.“
In an interview announcing his decision to stay Messi said that he was convinced to stay by his family, with his children being particularly reluctant to leave Spain.
But one suspects that, unless there are some significant changes in how the club is being run, the upcoming season will be little more than a stay of execution for what will be one of the most momentous – and seemingly inevitable – transfers in football history.
