Luis Suarez has opened up about his and Lionel Messi’s end at Barcelona. The Uruguayan striker claims the board wanted to separate the duo and thus sold him to Atletico Madrid.
The summer of 2020 was eventful at Barcelona as the club were thrashed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League. Things got worse the next day as Messi sent a burofax to ex-Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu and conveyed that he was terminating his contract.
Suarez has now spoken about the things that happened behind the scenes at the time. Speaking to ESPN, the former Liverpool striker said:
“It hurt and we suffered a lot. We came from the elimination in the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich and Leo’s burofax, everything was very complicated and painful. Firstly, because of the way things went, and also because of the way we were treated.”
Suarez was ordered to train separately after being told that he was not part of Ronald Koeman’s plans for the season. The Uruguayan claimed he went home and cried as a result of the incident:
“I went, I showed up to train and they sent me to train separately. I suffered a lot and came home and cried because of how they had treated me. It hurt me, it was also a message that they wanted to leave Leo [Lionel Messi] alone, separate him.
He added:
“We had nothing to do with it. In the years I was at Barcelona, I never dropped below 25 goals per season.”
The former Barcelona striker went on to say that the incident hurt Messi and the Argentine also ended up crying:
“We had a bad time. Leo suffered a lot. I had never seen [Lionel] Messi cry like I saw him cry at Barcelona, it hurt him. I always had that uncertainty as to why it all happened, but then luckily I was happy at Atlético de Madrid.”
Suarez was close to joining Juvnetus, but the move collapsed after he failed to secure an Italian passport. He ended up joining Atletico Madrid to help them win the La Liga title next season.
Lionel Messi ended up staying at Barcelona for another season
Lionel Messi activated a clause in his contract which stated he could terminate the deal 10 days after the end of the season. The Argentine sent in the burofax (Mundo Deportivo) the day after the humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich, but it was rejected by Barcelona.
The board claimed that the burofax wasn’t sent on time and that the clause was not active as the deadline was on 10 June, 2020. Messi argued that the delay was due to the COVID-19 break in the season, but he would have had to take the club to court to force his exit.
Lionel Messi revealed that he was not interested in taking his club to court, and that was the only reason he decided to stay for another season.