Luis Suarez has leapt to the defence of Lionel Messi after details of the Argentine’s contract demands at Barcelona were leaked.
The Argentine superstar was in talks over extending his stay at the Catalan club two years ago, prior to him attempting to walk out of the club in the same summer. He ultimately stayed put before leaving the following year to join Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year contract.
A year prior to his Camp Nou exit, Messi was in talks to put pen to paper on a new contract before unsuccessfully trying to force his exit from the club by submitting a burofax – a legal document common in Spain, after the parties fell out over the terms on offer.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo leaked details of Messi’s demands last month, by revealing an email chain between the player’s father and agent Jorge along with high-ranking Camp Nou officials. Each party was trying to reach an agreement over a new deal, but no conclusion could be reached and the relationship soon broke down.
One of the more eye-catching details from the documents was how Messi had requested that both his and Suarez’s families – who were close friends away from football – could have access to the VIP boxes in the Camp Nou. Suarez was at that stage still a teammate at the Blaugrana before later leaving for Atletico Madrid.
In an interview with Marca , Suarez explained: "It (the contract details) amuses me. It is something very normal in any player. If you check the contracts of any elite footballer, they should all have their box. I, for example, at Atletico Madrid, had mine; in Nacional, too.
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"That's why all this speculation amuses me. Actually, Leo's thing was to try to make life easier for the club because, being shared by our two families, it was just a box. It was more difficult for Barca if Suarez had one and Messi had another [laughs]."
Messi’s request for the VIP box access for both him and Suarez had actually been accepted by the club, but the Catalan giants refused other demands – including abolishing the player’s €700million release clause to a token value which would allow the Argentine to move on when he wished.
Messi's father wrote in one of the emails sent to Alfonso Nebot, director of the office that manages the superstar's wealth, as the talks broke down: "Let them feel the weight of the sword on their head." That was the series of events that led to Messi’s demand to leave the club that summer.
