After weeks of rumours and multiple theories, the world was shocked after Lionel Messi announced he will stay back at FC Barcelona.

After the club’s loss at this year’s Champions League and overall poor performance, Messi was deliberating to move onto another team, which naturally sent the football world into a frenzy. But the football legend has decided to stay back at FC Barcelona, to avoid facing “the club I love” in court.

Messi sent an official fax to Barca where he expressed interest in exercising a clause in his contract which allows him to leave for free. But the club was insistent on him paying his 700 million euro release amount if he intends to leave the club.

“I thought and was sure that I was free to leave,” Messi told Goal.

“I told the president and, well, the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not keep his word.

“Now I am going to continue in the club because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700 million clause, and that this is impossible.”

Messi also explained how there was an option to take Barca to court, but he didn’t want to go that road with a club that positively contributed to his career.

“Now they cling to the fact that I did not say it before 10 June, when it turns out that on 10 June we were competing for La Liga in the middle of this awful coronavirus and this disease altered all the season,” he added.

“There was another way and it was to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, which gave me everything since I arrived.

“It is the club of my life, I have made my life here.”

The club was quick to announce the news on social media. Some fans were glad, while many commented “#FreeMessi” in the comments.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEubDxmq7US/

The club also revealed their new 2020/21 kit with Messi on the posters. The new FCB kit is primarily pink with green/teal accents on the collar and club badge.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1GNbPqABR/

“Dawn is breaking in Barcelona, the sun is starting to come out and the city is enshrouded in different tones: the morning pink and the green-blue of the sea create the bright, vibrant, Mediterranean landscape that was the inspiration behind the new FC Barcelona third kit for the 2020/21 season,” Barca said on their website.