The complete text of Messi's burofax has been published

Lionel Messi shocked the football world in the summer of 2020 by sending a burofax to Josep Maria Bartomeu, the president of Barcelona at the time, expressing his desire to leave the club where he’d spent his entire professional career. That document has now been published by Mundo Deportivo and it makes for interesting reading.

We already knew what Messi asked for in the burofax, which was to unilaterally end his Barcelona contract one year earlier than the 2021 end date – when it did eventually expire and when Messi ultimately ended up at PSG.

There was a clause in Messi’s last Barcelona contract that would allow the player to conclude his commitment to the club just after the end of a season, however the delay to the end of the 2019/20 season meant that Barcelona’s final match of that campaign – the 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich – took place well after the original terms of the contract. Messi argued in his burofax that force majeure should have applied to that clause, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the end, Messi and his lawyers didn’t take that stance all the way to court and he remained at the Camp Nou for 2020/21.

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The complete transcript of the Messi burofax

“Dear Mr. Bartomeu,” Messi’s letter started, according to the scanned document shared by Mundo Deportivo.

“Through this communication and in accordance with clause 3.1 from the contract signed on 25th November 2017, I express my desire to end my professional football contract as of the date of 30th August 2020.

“I understand that the time frame for the right to unilateral termination of the contract, without proving cause, should be interpreted in accordance with the exceptional circumstances of the 2019/20 football season, given the state of emergency and the force majeure situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a result of this exceptional circumstance, the 2019/20 season finished yesterday, while for our team the end of the season was on 15th August as we returned to Barcelona following our elimination from the Champions League on 14th August.

“In either case, we are within the period of 10 days following the end of the season of competition and in the period agreed for triggering the aforementioned clause 3.1, which was established in our agreement and which should be interpreted in line with the exceptional circumstances of the 2019/20 season, so I exercise my right to terminate the contract as of 30th August, bringing about all of the consequences outlined in clause 3.1.

“Sincerely, Lionel Andres Messi.”