Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia journalist and transfer market expert Gianluca Di Marzio has revealed why he never bought into all of the speculation surrounding Lionel Messi possibly moving to Inter.
During the Summer transfer window, Messi rocked the football world by announcing he wanted out of Barcelona and this sent the world media into a frenzy and saw him linked with a whole array of top clubs, including Inter, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
“I have always expressed myself in the opposite direction, I took my responsibilities, I risked because so many important newspapers came out with ‘the Messi dream’, I said that nothing came of it,” he explained in an interview with TribalFootball.com.
“I took a risk, but fortunately for the trust I have earned in the world of football I think that one source can throw me astray, but not five sources at the same time, so if I said that, it was because I had my good reasons to say that there was no possibility.”
Di Marzio proceeded to discuss Manchester City’s push to sign the multi-time world player of the year and shared his belief about where Messi’s future will lie past the end of this season.
“It was City, it was the team where he would have gone if he left, but Barça still wanted the entire payment of the buyout clause.
“No president in Barcelona would want or could ever sign-off over the sale of Messi, if you know the Blaugrana world you know this.
“I would have found it very strange and I think that the new Barcelona president can only present himself with the renewal of Messi. For me he will continue there.”
Messi is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and has spent the entirety of his career with Barcelona. The 33-year-old has made 741 appearances across all competitions for them, in which he has scored a sensational 640 goals and tallied 282 assists.