Messi: A prisoner in a home he once loved

"Se Queda."

Which translates to "He stays". Those were the words that Gerard Pique said in a post with him and a picture of Neymar before the Brazilan made his world-record transfer to Paris Saint Germain. 

Neymar did not stay as PSG activated his release clause and he agreed personal terms with the Parisians.

His good friend and mentor Lionel Messi, however, is staying at Barca, at least for one more season before his contract runs out and he is free to go wherever he chooses. 

The Argentine is staying but he wishes he didn't. 

He is staying because he does not want to take the club he loves to court over his contract, which has a clause that allows him to leave for free at the end of the season. 

He is staying because his kids and family were not ready to leave this city that they call home.

But Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu and La Liga have contested that the terms are only applicable at the end of May, which is when the season would have finished normally, if not for the pandemic and the midseason halt in football.

Now the Spanish football governing body and Bartomeu say any team willing to buy Messi must pay his release clause of 700 million Euros, which, not even Manchester City, who were the frontrunners to sign him, would pay. 

Knowing that Messi would be available for a free next summer, they would rather wait and do smart business than pay that kind of crazy money for a 33-year-old, despite him being one of the best players in world football currently. 

I wasn't happy and I wanted to leave. I have not been allowed this in any way and I will STAY at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute. The management of the club led by (president Josep Maria) Bartomeu is a disaster. I told the club, the president in particular, that I wanted to leave. They knew this since the start of the past season. I told them during all (of the) last 12 months. But I will stay here because I don't want to start a legal war. I will continue at Barca and my attitude will not change no matter how much I have wanted to go. I wanted to go because I thought about living my last years of football happily. Lately I have not found happiness within the club.

Lionel Messi

So what happens to Messi now?  

Messi has made it clear that he isn't happy at Barca and that he feels that "there is no sporting project" there at the moment under the current president. 

New coach Ronald Koeman will face a gargantuan task of reintegrating Messi back into the team and the setup. 

He will also have to convince the six-time Ballon d'Or winner that the club is headed in the right direction. 

But for that to happen, Barca will have to invest in fixing an ageing squad with a static midfield and an error-prone defence.  

With the new La Liga season just a few weeks away, and with a pandemic making the club cash strapped, Koeman is running out of time to get the players that can make the difference.

Most importantly, he needs to make the Blaugranas go back to their attractive brand of possession-based football.

Whether that is even possible with this set of players is a big question and more importantly, whether fans will be patient as Barca rebuild is the bigger question. 

Whatever the case is, Messi is still one of the top players in world football and an unhappy Messi who wanted to leave Barca for the past 12 months scored over 20 and assisted over 20 (a record) for his club in the league. 

And one can expect the same level of performance from him in this season too, despite his grievances with the club. 

What happens to the current board?

Now, this is a tricky question because there is a chance of the board under Bartomeu being overhauled before the presidential elections early next year. 

For that to happen though, a certain number of Barca board members need to give a vote of no confidence against Bartomeu. 

The process will then be taken to court where then it will be decided whether the board stays or not.

It is still not going to be a quick solution and perhaps will just make the situation messier.   

But whatever happens, whoever comes in as the next Barca president will have a lot of pressure on him to try and keep a hold of Messi and get him to renew his contract. 

He or she won't want to go down in history as the president that failed to keep Messi at Barca, even though it might have been the doing of Bartomeu. 

There will be those that say that Messi is doing it for the money and for a bumper new deal but let's face it, Messi makes enough money as it is, and it's clearly not that, and more down to the direction of the club.

There will be those that feel that Messi is creating this drama to deflect the attention from the team and there will also be those that say he's a quitter and he wants to quit when the going gets tough.

But this can also be viewed as a way of Messi speaking up against the authority to protect the club that he so dearly loves and is showing true leadership.

All is not well at Camp Nou and that is obvious.

Perhaps Messi speaking up and being open about it is a step in the right direction for him and the club.

That is something only time will tell.