Lionel Messi In Tears At Final Barcelona Farewell Press Conference

Lionel Messi fought back tears as he began a press conference at which he confirmed he is leaving Barcelona, the football club where he has played his entire career. 

CloudNine Sports reported few days ago, that the Six-time Ballon d’Or winner despite willing to extend his stay at Barcelona, would now be leaving the club after 21 years, as they could no longer afford to keep him.

Messi was already emotional even before he made an opening statement at the farewell ceremony on Sunday morning;

“These recent days, I’ve been giving lots of thought about what I could say, and the truth is that I can’t think of anything,” He said as hundreds of fans, many wearing his number 10 jersey, gathered outside the Barca’s Camp Nou stadium to bid farewell to their super star.

“This year, my family and I were convinced we were going to stay at home, that’s what we all wanted more than anything... He added

“We’d always made this our own, we were at home. We thought we would be staying here in Barcelona. But today, we have to say goodbye to all of this.”

“I did everything possible not to and the club, Laporta, they couldn’t do it because of LaLiga.

“I’ve heard things said about me, that I didn’t want to continue, but on my life, we did everything we could because I wanted to stay.

“Last year, I didn’t want to stay and I said it; this year, I wanted to stay and we couldn’t.”

“I didn't want to leave this club, it's a club l love. I hope I can come back and be part of this club again in any way and help it become the best in the world."

Messi also confirmed he had agreed to take a 50 per cent wage cut during negotiations over a new deal.

“I offered to reduce my salary by 50 per cent and they didn’t ask me for anything else.

“The news that I’d asked for 30 per cent more is a lie. We did everything we could and it wasn’t possible.”

The 34-year-old Argentine, who has been heavily linked with a move to Paris St Germain as a free agent.

PSG already appears to be the most likely next destination for Messi and while he confirmed that joining the French giants was a possibility, he insisted nothing was yet agreed.

"That’s honestly one possibility, to reach those heights, but I’ve got nothing confirmed with anybody.

“When the press release was published, I had a lot of calls and a lot of clubs were interested.

“At the moment, I’ve not got anything closed, but we are talking about a lot of things.”

PSG are ready to welcome the all-time Barcelona top-scorer, and according to multiple sources, they already made preparations to reserve the Eiffel Tower for his presentation next week, and the last the the club did that was when they announced Neymar's arrival.