Here are your Spanish football morning headlines for Monday, December 21.
Messi had a “very bad time” this summer
Lionel Messi has admitted that he endured a “very bad time” at Barcelona over the summer but he is now happy and willing to fight for the club.
In an exclusive interview with Catalan radio station RAC1, Messi has spoken about the spell in summer that saw him attempt to leave the Camp Nou, including sending a burofax with his intentions.
However, the Catalan giants did not countenance his exit and he remains at the club.
As quoted by Diario AS, Messi said: “The truth is that today I’m fine. It’s true that I had a very bad time in the summer. It started from before that. What happened before the summer, because of how the season ended, the burofax and all that…then it dragged him a bit at the beginning of the season.
“But today I’m fine and I feel like fighting seriously for everything that lies ahead, I am excited. I know that the club is going through a difficult time, at a club level and with the team, and everything that surrounds Barcelona becomes difficult but I’m looking forward to it.”
Barcelona news has been defined by Messi news this year due to the Argentine’s demands to leave the club and, aged 34 next summer, his contract at the club expires at the end of the campaign.
La Liga president blasts Real Madrid counterpart
La Liga president Javier Tebas has hit back at his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez after the Madrid supremo talked up the possibility of a European Super League.
As cited by Marca, Perez also claimed that the league’s use of VAR and replayed images was not objective, another issue which Tebas took issue with.
Creo que el presidente del @realmadrid anda muy despistado con el tema de la SUPERLIGA, deben informarle mejor. Y sobre las retransmisiones… si cree que no son objetivas, en el mando a distancia hay una opción para escuchar el partido con RMTV, seguro que son más “objetivas”.
— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) December 20, 2020
“I think the president Madrid is clueless about the Super League issue, they should inform him better. And about the broadcasts…if you think they are not objective, in the remote control there is an option to listen to the game with RMTV, surely there are more ‘objective’.”
Zidane trusts only a select few
Real Madrid news recently has been dominated by a resurgence in form that has seen the club romp to five successive wins in all competitions.
As highlighted by Diario AS, the club’s boss Zinedine Zidane has not leaned heavily on his squad in this time – using just 12 players frequently in that time.
Madrid have a 25-man first-team squad but even players such as Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernandez and Fede Valverde have not had prominence in recent weeks.
