Éric Abidal broke the silence after his remembered altercation with Lionel Messi
The former Barcelona official and a controversial statement
Already away from his position as Barcelona's technical secretary, which he held from June 2018 to the end of August 2020, Éric Abidal broke the silence in an interview with Telegraph in which he spoke about everything and, specifically, about the altercation in which he starred. with Lionel Messi in early February last year. It all started with a statement from the former French footballer to Sport, in which he had held the squad responsible for the departure of Ernesto Valverde from the technical direction: “Many players were not satisfied or worked hard and there was also an internal communication issue. There are things that as a former player I can smell”.
Following act, it was the captain of the Barça team who raised the flag through a message on social networks: “I think that when it comes to players we should give names because otherwise we are getting dirty and feeding things that are said and they aren't true”.
A crossroads of statements in the midst of an institutional crisis that ended with the resignation of Josep Maria Bartomeu and the dissolution of his board of directors. Now, Abidal, clarified what happened: “They needed to train harder in my opinion. In my time with Guardiola, it was to win everything if you work hard during the week. This is what I said. I never said that the players wanted to get rid of the coach". “I also understand that Messi is the captain and I wanted to defend the squad, but I never said that Messi told me to fire the coach. Never”, he said.
Éric Abidal and the talk he had with Lionel Messi
Regarding that message from the Argentine, the Frenchman revealed that, “Messi also spoke to me personally. We had a strong conversation, but I can accept it. No problem because you have to be transparent. He was very comfortable because he was the only player who spoke to me like that, the only one. I respect that".
How was the relationship between Éric Abidal and Lionel Messi?
Finally he explained that he has nothing pending to fix with him: “Our relationship hasn't changed from my point of view. From his point of view, I don't know, but for me the situation is over. We have exchanged many messages and he knows what I think. He didn't want to turn a small situation into a global situation and put the whole club in trouble”.
