Lionel Messi will stay with Barcelona this season

(Photo Credit: David Ramos / Staff via Getty Images)

On Friday Lionel Messi announced that he will stay with Barcelona for the upcoming soccer season. The announcement follows a statement wherein Messi said that he planned on leaving Barcelona on a free transfer.

Barça could not accept Messi's plan to break his contract because its terms stipulated that he would have had to leave in June or else he'd have to pay a buyout fee.

The Associated Press reports that Messi's decision to stay with Barcelona "ended an impasse over his future that started when he told Barcelona that he wanted to leave the club for free at the end of the season. Barcelona wanted him to finish his contract that runs until June 2021. It claimed that the clause invoked by Messi to leave had expired in June and said that he had to pay the buyout clause of 700 million euros ($837 million) if he wanted to depart now."

Messi told Goal.com that he wished to leave Barça to pursue other challenges and that the decision to leave was not easy for him or his family.

Despite his desire to leave, Messi will not take this matter with Barcelona to court. "I would never go to court against Barça 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. Barça gave me everything and I gave it everything. I know that it never crossed my mind to take Barça to court,” Messi said via Goal.com.

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