{"id":10664,"date":"2021-08-08T17:32:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T12:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=134547"},"modified":"2021-08-08T17:33:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T12:03:54","slug":"lionel-messi-hosts-a-press-conference-to-say-tearful-goodbye-to-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/lionel-messi-hosts-a-press-conference-to-say-tearful-goodbye-to-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi hosts a press conference to say a tearful goodbye to Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi has officially told Barcelona that he is not going to come to the club again. Lionel never wanted to leave the club, and never thought of leaving it like this. Barcelona is his boyhood club. He got his contract expired in June, but everyone including him knew that he is going to stay at the club. However, under La Liga restrictions, he couldn\u2019t sign his new contract and had to leave the club.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We will always love you. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uzeHS6cA4f\">pic.twitter.com\/uzeHS6cA4f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FCBarcelona\/status\/1424330588232818688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, he gave an emotional speech at a press conference in Barcelona. Messi spoke for the first time since the news of him leaving Barca was out. He was in tears during his final press conference at the club.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is the word of Leo <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Messi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Messi<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k0btQ7k1py\">pic.twitter.com\/k0btQ7k1py<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FCBarcelona\/status\/1424315134315540491?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said so many words which made him as well as the fans emotional. \u201cThis is difficult for me after so many years, having been here for all my life. I am not ready for this,\u201d Messi told in the press conference on Sunday. He thanked all the players he has played within this club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave everything for this shirt from the first day until the very last. The truth is I am leaving,\u201d Messi added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u275dWhen I made my debut, that was my dream come true \u2026 I'll always remember that moment.\u275e<\/p>\n<p>      \u2014 Leo <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Messi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Messi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BPhg0c6zF7\">pic.twitter.com\/BPhg0c6zF7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FCBarcelona\/status\/1424323075248726017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Messi\u2019s family members and the teammates with whom he ever played was present at this conference. After his farewell message to the fans and the club, he got a standing ovation from all the people who were present at the press conference.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Leo Messi: \u201cI\u2019m really sad because I didn\u2019t want to leave this club. I love Barcelona and I wanted to stay, my contract was ready. I did everything in my possibility to stay\u201d. \ud83d\udd34 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Messi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Messi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FCB?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FCB<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FCBlive?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FCBlive<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9tUbv2aWCB\">pic.twitter.com\/9tUbv2aWCB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1424315611660886016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi officially says goodbye to the Football Club Barcelona at a press conference on Sunday. Messi gave an emotional farewell message to Barcelona during this press conference. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":33141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2286,1684,487,239,662],"class_list":["post-10664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-barcelona-fc","tag-farewell","tag-lionel-messi","tag-messi","tag-messi-transfer"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}