barcelona spain barcelona fans breathed a collective sigh of relief a day after lionel messi said he would wait a year in his desire to seek success elsewhereargentina great messi announced friday that despite having told the club he wanted to leave he would see out the last season on his contract the 33yearold forward said he would stay because he wanted to avoid the ugly possibility of going to court to seek his releasehes staying was splashed over a huge photo of messi on the front page of barcelonas daily sport on saturdayas a barca supporter i celebrate the news 72yearold retiree roberto ciervo said they managed to avoid a bitter end something nobody including himself wanted after his career in barcawhile fans are divided over whether to blame the player or club executives for the pending separation messis immaculate reputation in the spanish city has undoubtedly taken a knocksome supporters like ciervo said they understand his decision to leave after the teams failures in the champions league in recent seasons which reached a low point with a stunning 82 defeat to bayern munich in the quarterfinals last monthmessi said in an interview with goalcom that throughout the year i had been telling the president that i wanted to leave that the time had come to seek new goals and new directions in my careeralthough he had voiced criticism of the teams inability to compete at the top level during the season he saved the bombshell he wanted to leave until after the champions league debacle and his way of telling barcelona and his fans could not have been colder sending a buxofax a certified document in spain similar to a telegram to the clubs officethat has irked some of barcelonas faithfuli followed the whole story and i think he handled things a bit wrong said 44yearold health worker noelia lagares if he had already made up his mind about leaving then he should have said it before like in january he said he feels like part of the family because hes spent his life here then why send a burofax either he didnt get good advice or he didnt know how to do it in a nicer fashion the way we fans would have likedbarcelona starts the season in three weeks when it hosts villarreal at a camp nou still devoid of fans due to covid19 so messi will avoid hearing the verdict of the crowd for nowhe had to put his exit plans on hold after barcelona refused to let him go unless his buyout clause of 700 million euros 829 million was triggeredbarcelona has limited its response to messis announcement to two tweets the first on friday was an excerpt from his interview on goalcom saying i will give it my all my love for barca will never waver that was followed by a video clip on saturday of him scoring the winning goal in the 2009 club world cup finalmessi has not yet