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Published 15:35 IST, October 9th 2019

La Liga: Lionel Messi admits he almost left Barcelona five years ago

Lionel Messi revealed that he was on the brink of leaving Barcelona over the £2.95m tax row with Spanish government> Here are further details about the issue.

Reported by: Daniel Arambur
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Lionel Messi was at his very best once again as Spanish giants Barcelona played out an impressive 4-0 win against Sevilla at Camp Nou on the weekend. The little master scored a sublime free-kick in the 78th minute to put Barcelona up by four goals in front of the home fans. However, in a recent radio interview, Barcelona legend Lionel Messi spoke about how he almost left the Catalonian club amidst his £2.95m tax row with the Spanish government five years ago. There were a lot of rumours around Messi's departure during that tough period in his career. Here are further details about Messi's unsuccessful Barcelona exit.

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La Liga: Lionel Messi almost left Barcelona over £2.95m tax row with Spanish officials

LaLiga's all-time top scorer Messi has a tally of 609 goals from 692 appearances for Barcelona. In a recent interview with a Spanish radio, the Argentinian spoke about how he almost left Barcelona due to his £2.95m tax row with the Spanish government. Messi said that he was being mistreated and wanted to leave Spain due to the issues with the Spanish treasury. The Argentine added that he did not like that his family was being subjected to undue pressure from external forces. The Barcelona No 10 ended up paying a reported £223,000 fine to Spanish authorities. One can only wonder where Barcelona would have been had Messi left Spanish giants Barcelona last season.

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Updated 18:57 IST, October 9th 2019

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