Ronald Koeman 'not confident' Lionel Messi will extend Barcelona stay
By Tom Gott
Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has confessed he is not confident Lionel Messi will choose to renew his contract at Camp Nou.
The Argentine was involved in a famous clash with the club last summer which resulted in him asking to leave the club and refusing to turn up to training in an attempt to bring his 20-year association with Barcelona to an end.
Eventually, Messi decided to stay, declining to take his beloved team to court to get his wish, but his future still remains up in the air as he has just six months remaining on his current contract. While he's not expected to do so, he is technically free to talk to overseas teams about a free transfer in the summer.
Things took another dramatic turn recently as Messi threatened to sue the club after his record-breaking £492m contract was leaked to the media - something Barcelona have denied responsibility for, and most fans are unsure as to whether Messi will choose to stay or not.
“I’m not confident about that,” Koeman told The Athletic before the contract leak. “I’m hopeful, yes, about this because he’s still a great player and he’s still winning matches for us, for the team.
"I’m enjoying being his coach, if you look at his qualities every day in the training sessions, it’s incredible. Of course, he came as a young kid to Barcelona. And I still don’t see Leo Messi in another shirt other than the Barça shirt."
One of Koeman's first jobs at Barcelona was to speak to Messi. When he arrived in August 2020, Messi was expected to leave Camp Nou, with Manchester City named as likely suitors, but a transfer never materialised.
The off-field drama led to a drop in form from Messi, who admitted he was 'carrying the weight' of it all, and Koeman confessed it was a tricky situation to manage.
“It was a difficult time because he’s still the best player, but he was angry about some situations in the club,” he said. “And he was not happy that he was in a team who lost 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the quarter-final of the Champions League. Of course, he was angry, he had to leave, he wanted to leave the team.
“First of all, what I said to the club was, ‘OK, it’s not my problem. It’s a problem between the club and Leo Messi. And you have to resolve that’. Finally, the club said, ‘We don’t make a transfer for him. He needs to stay’. It was a difficult time for Leo but he finally accepted it.
“I spoke to him in his house before we started the season and I made plans with him and he was really enthusiastic. I knew that he had some problems with the club and I was out of that. I said to Leo, ‘I’m really happy if you stay. If you don’t stay, it’s your decision and it’s what you have to handle with the club. If you stay, you will be part of the team and this will be your position to get all the best out of yourself’.
"Little by little, he accepted that situation. And look how he is playing in the last few weeks, he is really involved in the club, in the team. But nobody knows what will happen in the future.”