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On Thursday, Pep Guardiola signed a contract to extend his tenure with the Manchester City side by two years. The occasion was brought up when talking about Lionel Messi, who was set to join his former coach’s squad last summer.
Guardiola said: “Messi is a Barcelona player. I have said it a thousand times. As a fan I want Leo to end his career there.”
He added: “His contract expires this year (season) and I don’t know what’s going on in his head.”
Messi (33 )’s contract with Barcelona expires next summer and he can sign an initial contract with any team outside Spain, starting in January. Player transfers between clubs will open in June and July.
The Argentina playmaker had indicated he was ready to join “Manchester City” after submitting a transfer request in August, but Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu blocked his transfer.
The Catalan club president resigned in October, but Messi’s future with the team remains unknown.
Paris Saint-Germain were among the teams seeking to include the Argentina player, but all of Barcelona’s presidential candidates have said their priority is to convince Messi to stay. The elections that will take place in January will determine the winner of the club presidency.
“I am very grateful to Barcelona and for what they have done for me,” said Guardiola, who had previously worked with Messi while coaching Barcelona between 2008 and 2012. “At the academy, as a player and in as a coach, they definitely gave me their all. “
“I was taking a break.”
Guardiola’s deal will keep him until 2023 to complete seven seasons with Manchester City, the sum he spent to coach Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Despite the obvious interest in him, the 49-year-old said he was unwilling to move elsewhere and would have stepped away from the game, as he did when he left Barcelona in 2012, s he hadn’t made a deal with City.
“I don’t think of anywhere else, I just think of staying here,” he said of his contract extension with Manchester City.
“It was not my decision alone, it was also the decision of the team. If we felt that was enough, I would take a break,” he added.
“But we feel that we still have a lot of things to do together. We want to continue what we have done in previous seasons,” he added.
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