Since Barça first contracted Messi back in 2000, their relationship has been practically inseparable. But believe it or not, there have been 6 occasions where he could have left the club, which I will detail on today's entry.
The first time was back in February 2001, when he received a serious injury, a fractured fibula. When he was at his hotel with his dad, Jorge Messi asked him "Lío, what do you want us to do? Do we come back?", referring to leaving Barcelona to go back home, but Leo strongly replied, "No, dad, I want to succeed at Barcelona.", something his dad still remembers to this day and brings tears to his eyes.
In 2003, Arsenal was in discussions with Barcelona to sign Messi after noting his clear talent. They were also in talks with Fàbregas, who was a team-mate of Messi in the 2001/02 and 2002/03 Cadete seasons. In the end, it amounted to nothing due to Messi's unwillingness to leave the club.
The third time was in 2005, after his amazing performance in the 2005 Joan Gamper. Inter Milan offered to pay Messi's high release clause of €150 million (which was over twice the standing record at the time of €77.5 million from Real Madrid for Zidane) and even triple his wages. But Laporta told Messi's father that Messi would be happy and get glory at Barça, while he would only get financial gain at Inter Milan. Barça refused to sell Messi and he stayed. Later in 2006, Inter looked to sign him for an extraordinary €250 million (which was the bar set by Barcelona earlier), but Laporta once again refused the offer.
The fourth time was June 2014. Numerous factors accumulated to a point where he wanted to leave Barça, like Tito Villanova's delicate situation, problems with the Hacienda due to alleged tax fraud, and few trophies with the team. In the end, he signed a new contract with the club and won the treble the next season.
In June 2016, he thought about leaving once again, though it was more the thought of leaving Spain altogether than Barça. This was because of him getting charged of tax fraud and getting a big fine. Once again, he decided to stay after the storm cleared.
The last and probably most known time was in August 2020 after their 8-2 loss to Bayern in the UCL which got them kicked out of the competition. He directly expressed his desire to leave via burofax on August 25th, which lead to massive attention all around the world. After a week and a half of uncertainty, Messi decided to stay since he would have to sue the club to leave, and he didn't want to do that out of his love for the club.
In the end, through the good and the bad, Messi has decided to stay at Barcelona, a clear sign of the love he has for the Catalan club.
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