[Sport] They revealed the intimacy of the conclave between Messi and Guardiola to sign at Manchester City in 2020: the extra long duration and the “deceptions” of Barcelona

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On August 8, 2021, Lionel Messi made his final departure from Barcelona official in a tearful speech. The club's all-time top scorer had to emigrate due to the new leadership's refusal to renew his contract. Paris Saint-Germain was his new home, but that departure was very close to happening a year earlier, when the star was one step away from arriving at Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.

The 14 titles won by the duo at Blaugrana left a relationship full of success between them. After their paths separated, they reunited on August 18, 2020. That day, Messi and Guardiola saw each other in the coach's apartment in Bonanova, a residential area of Barcelona, according to the book God save Pep, written by Martí Perarnau, which offers details about the intimacy of the dialogue that occurred on a sofa at home four days after the historic 8-2 elimination against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Pep's biographer, who has already written two other books about the coach such as 'Herr Pep' and 'Pep Guardiola, The Metamorphosis', specified that the conclave began at noon and lasted for more than six hours, ending at 18:30 in the afternoon, according to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo. And the newspaper added: “They were excited to work together again at City that same summer.”

The fall of the English team against Olympique Lyon in the quarterfinals of the Champions League had left the coach discouraged and, on the other hand, Messi faced the “deceptions” of the president of Barcelona at that time, Josep María Bartomeu, of his coach, Quique Setién, and the latter's field assistant, Eder Sarabia.

 

 

The “patches and juggling” of the resounding fall in Lisbon against the Bavarians strained the bond of the 10 with the leadership until the last moments and the book deepens the intersection of opinions maintained by the captain of the Argentine team with the driver who marked his career .

- Guardiola: ”In Manchester we train very hard...”.

- Messi: ”I will train hard, I'm not worried.”

-Guardiola: ”And he continued making long tactical talks. Maybe you'll get bored..."

- Messi: ”I'll hold on. I will put up with everything you do.”

- Guardiola: ”Leo, we have grown older. Maybe we can't stand each other anymore."

Previously, Perarnau said in an interview for the Catalan newspaper Sport that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner was the main interlocutor in that talk: “It's like that, it may surprise because Messi spoke very little before but we have all seen how Messi has evolved and The speech he gave at the Ballon d'Or gala reaffirms this. He is not the same Messi as he was when he started playing. It was he who wanted to meet with Guardiola to find out if he could play for Manchester City. City did not move for Messi. What City told Messi is that if he left Barça they would study the possible incorporation of him. But he didn't give it.”

Later, the writer avoided the question about whether the champion of the last Champions League would have gone all out for the Argentine, if he had signed his definitive separation from Barcelona: “We cannot know what would have happened but it is reasonable to think that without the link with Barça, Guardiola would not have said no to Messi. He is still the best in the world and we are talking about three years ago. But since Messi did not separate from Barça, there was no more story, this point was never reached.”

 

https://www.infobae.com/deportes/2023/12/14/revelaron-la-intimidad-del-conclave-entre-messi-y-guardiola-para-fichar-en-manchester-city-en-2020-la-duracion-extra-large-y-los-enganos-del-barcelona/