Messi said: “I told the club, especially the president, that I wanted to go.
“I’ve been telling him all year. He believed it was time to step aside.
“I believed that the club needed more young people, new people and I thought my time in Barcelona was over, feeling it a lot because I always said that I wanted to finish my career here.
“It was a very difficult year, I suffered a lot in training, in games and in the dressing room. Everything became very difficult for me and there came a time when I considered looking for new goals, new airs.
source: express.co.uk