SHOCK: Lionel Messi and father wanted six people out of Barcelona including Spanish defender and long-time team-mate Gerard Pique

According to El Nacional, Messi and his father gave an ultimatum to then Barcelona president Joan Laporta about expelling six individuals from the club.

While Argentine star Lionel Messi scored a last-minute goal with a free kick for Paris Saint-Germain in the team’s 4-3 win over Lille in a match on Sunday night, it has emerged that Messi along with his father Jorge had given an ultimatum to FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta about expelling six individuals including Spanish defender Gerard Pique from the club if the Spanish club wanted to retain him. While Messi made a departure from Barcelona in 2021 following a 21-year association, newspaper El Nacional has reported that Spanish football star Gerard Pique was one of the six persons to be identified by the 35-year-old and his father for leaving the club for him to stay.

There were rumours of a rift between Messi and Pique during their time at Barcelona and the alleged rift between the two players had been the talk in football circles in Europe. Last year, Pique had told a Spanish newspaper about his suggestion to Barcelona management about the after effects of Messi’s contract renewal at the Spanish club.

While Messi and Pique had played 506 matches together for the club, the relationship between the two had not been on good terms according to several media reports. “I’m good with numbers, but I find it hard to get my head around the financial fair play thing. I don’t know. I sat down with the president and it was clear that I had to reach an agreement with the club; otherwise we weren’t going to be able to register any signings. And I think if Leo’s contract had been renewed, the numbers would have been really difficult. I don’t know whether or not it would have been viable if everyone had made a monumental effort. I don’t have the information, Pique had told Spanish newspaper El Pais last year.

Post Argentina’s title win in the World Cup last year, Pique also admitted that he did not send Messi a congratulatory message. “No, honestly, no. My last months were very hard and I needed to disconnect. I haven’t seen any sport, and I did not even see any World Cup games. This will seem crazy to you but I didn’t watch any games, just the final and not the whole game,” Pique had told Tiktok personality John Nellis earlier.

According to El Nacional Messi and his father Jorge, who also acts as his agent, had also wanted to remove goal-keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, mid-fielder Riqui Puig, French forward Antoine Griezmann, Spanish footballer Ansu Fati and coach Ronald Koeman. Earlier, Stegen had not named Messi in his best XI of his team-mates and had also talked about his disagreement with Messi. “Although from time to time, we did not share the same opinion, we always went in the same direction and each one of us grew as a person regardless of winning or losing,” the German goal-keeper had posted on Instagram post Messi’s exit from Barcelona.

Source: indianexpress.com