The saga
Lionel Messi’s transfer request
triggered one of the biggest sagas in
the history of football. Sid Lowe tells
the story of how it all played out
J
ust after 7pm on August 25,
someone from the post office
turned up at FC Barcelona’s
reception on Aristides Maillol
Street alongside the Nou Camp.
Dressed in bright yellow and blue, they
were carrying the letter that would
change everything – except the thing
it was actually trying to change. Taken
inside, it was handed over and signed
for, meaning there was now no way that
anyone at the Catalan club could just
ignore it and hope that the terrible news
contained within would just go away.
The “burofax” – a kind of recorded
delivery and new word that everyone
now knows, so huge did this story
become – formally served notice
of Lionel Messi’s intention to leave
Barcelona after 20 years at the club.
He had arrived as a kid, just turned
13 and always said that he wanted
to end his career there, but now he
had changed his mind. At 33, having
scored more goals and won more
trophies than anyone else ever,having become the best player in their
history,hewantedtogo.
And he wanted to go for free.
Not only that: Messi insisted
that he was entitled to leave for free.
In fact, it was not so much that he was
announcing his intention to go, it was
that he was announcing that he had
already gone, per a clause in his
contract that allowed him to take the
unilateral decision to leave. Barcelona
could not stop him, nor demand a
transfer fee for him. Never mind the
€700m buyout clause – that no longer
applied. His price was zero. All he had
to do was communicate that to them
at the end of the season.
Messi would later insist that he had
told the president repeatedly of his
intention to depart over the course of
the season but that he kept getting put
off. He said he had been told that, yes,
they would deal with this – just not now.
Of course he could go, he says he was
told: he had earned that. But when it
came to it, the president,Josep MariaWORDSSid LoweLionel Messi