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Lionel Messi calls for truce with Barcelona after bitter fallout

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 01 October 2020

Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi says that he is willing to "bring an end" to his bitter fallout with the club and calls for unity going forward.

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has said that he is willing to "bring an end" to his row with the club.

The six-time Ballon d'Or winner attempted to engineer a move away from the Spanish giants earlier this summer, having grown disillusioned with the way the club has been run in recent years.

However, a bitter contractual dispute ultimately forced him to perform a reluctant U-turn and accept that he would stay at Camp Nou for at least one more season.

Messi has offered public and scathing criticism of Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu on more than one occasion since then, but the 33-year-old has now called for unity in order to get the club back on track.

"After so many disagreements, I would like to bring an end to everything. We all have to be united and assume that the best is yet to come," Messi told Sport.

"I take responsibility for my errors and if they existed, it was only to make FC Barcelona better and stronger. I wanted to send a message to all the socios and fans that follow us.

"If at any moment, any of them were annoyed by something that I said or did, let there be no doubts that anything I did was always with the club's best interests in mind.

"Uniting passion with excitement and motivation will be the only way to achieve our objectives, always united and rowing in the same direction."

Messi's future beyond the end of the 2020-21 season remains in doubt, with his contract due to expire next summer.