Ronald Koeman Happy to Know Lionel Messi Stays at Barcelona

DBasia.news – The new Barcelona manager, Ronald Koeman, said he was happy when he heard Lionel Messi decided to stay for the 2020-2021 season after the Argentine player made the club nervous because he wanted to leave Barcelona.

This is the first time the Dutchman has spoken about Messi, since the 33-year-old’s transfer saga began.

Barcelona’s all-time top scorer confirmed last week that he will stay until at least next season and start training under Koeman for the first time on Monday.

“It’s incredible, everyone knows he is the best player in the world, so to have that player in your team is extraordinary,” said Koeman as quoted by Reuters on Friday (11/9).

“For us now it is very important to have Leo (Messi) in the best condition to play, there is no question of his quality and it is fantastic that he will be a part of Barcelona, everyone is very happy about that.”

Messi can appear when Barca take on Gimnastic de Tarragona in a friendly match on Sunday.

Barcelona will only start their campaign in the new season after two weeks of La Liga kicked off due to playing in the Champions League last month.

“It’s good to have a friendly match, all the players have 45 minutes to reach the level of intensity we want,” added Koeman.

“Score is not the most important thing, but we have talked about tactics, what we need to do when we have the ball and how to press opponents when they have the ball. These tactical details are what we want to see tomorrow,” he concluded.