- Argentinian leaves Barça after more than 20 years at club
- He denies deal already agreed with Paris Saint-Germain
Lionel Messi hadn’t even started talking when he started crying. Holding a tissue handed to him by his wife, Antonella, he leant on the lectern and looked down, lost.
There was applause from the room, a lot of red eyes, but no words yet, and none that were much use anyway. “Bon día,” he said eventually. “For the last few days, I have been turning over what I would say, what I could say, and nothing came out. I had a block; I still do. This is very hard for me; I’m not prepared for this.”