Barcelona ‘Forced’ Me To Beg Messi To Stay — Suarez

Luis Suarez, an Atletico Madrid striker, claims that when he decided to leave last summer, Barcelona instructed him to beg Argentine star Lionel Messi.

Suarez, on the other hand, is enraged that former Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu did not speak to him when the club wanted him to leave.

He also claimed that manager Ronald Koeman lacked “personality.”

Suarez left Barcelona last year to join Atletico Madrid, where he won the league title in 2020/2021.

The 34-year-old told El Partidazo de COPE: “I’m never going to go against Barcelona, they have given me everything and allowed me to get to the elite, but obviously the president [Josep Maria Bartomeu] said everything in the press instead of calling me.

“The moment they wanted Leo [Messi] to stay they called me to use me to convince him, to talk to [Antoine] Griezmann…So why didn’t they call me when they wanted me to leave?

“Or why did the coach not come and tell me that he does not count on me because he wants another type of striker?

“Koeman told me I wasn’t in his plans, then he said: ‘If we don’t figure this out by tomorrow, you’re back in my plans and I’m counting on you against Villarreal’.

“I saw then that the man had no personality. He was not strong enough to tell me I was not needed. The decision [to sell] came from the board.”