I Did Not Know Neymar Was Planning An Exit – Messi

Lionel Messi has said he never knew what was going on until the very last moment over Neymar’s decision to quit Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain.

Gerard Pique and Xavi Hernandez have both revealed that they found out the Brazilian was leaving to France while they were at Messi’s wedding to long-term partner Antonela Roccuzzo at the end of June in Rosario, Argentina.

“Honestly, no,” he said when asked if he was aware during his wedding that Neymar had plans to join PSG.

“Until the last day of the tour [of the United States] we were talking and we didn’t know anything. He said that he still wasn’t clear what to do and he didn’t know what he was doing. Others said they knew. But right until the last minute, we were speaking to him.”

Xavi recently Neymar “told us at Messi’s wedding that he wanted to change, he wanted to change the club.

“I asked him, ‘but why?’ He said: ‘I’m not happy in Barcelona and I prefer to go out, to have a new experience in Europe, in Paris Saint-German.’ And finally, that was his decision. We must respect it.”

Luis Suarez has also said that he and Messi did his best to convince Neymar to remain at Camp Nou right up until the last possible moment, although without putting too much pressure on him.

“We never said, ‘Don’t go because you won’t be happy,'” he told Diario Sport on Wednesday. “We said, we didn’t want him to go, but that he was free to do what he wanted. Because of the friendship we have, it was painful that he left.”