Send Us Lionel Messi, We Will Forgive Barcelona – Roma President
Jul 28, 2018 at 3:49 PM
AS Roma president, James Pallotta has finally broken his silence and spoke about the Barcelona’s ‘immoral and unethical’ signing of Malcom.
Barcelona hijacked AS Roma’s deal to sign the Brazilian.
The Serie A side were on the verge of completing the capture of the highly rated winger. But Barcelona stunned them with a last-ditch bid of €41million.
Bordeaux accepted the offer, and the 21-year old was re-routed to Spain having been set to board a flight for a medical in Rome.
However, Pallotta claims his club already had a deal in place and that Malcom was eager to join.
“In terms of Barcelona, it looks like a pattern for them over the last few years. They did things that just should not be done at a club with the reputation that Barcelona intends to have. In fact, they apologised for their actions and how they went about things. I don’t accept the apology.”
The president also said he would only accept the apology of Barcelona if they sell them their star player, Lionel Messi.
“The only way I’ll accept it is on either one of two conditions: one, they give the player to us. That’s obviously not going to happen. Two, maybe as a goodwill gesture at the very least they could send us Messi!”
“I think a lot of clubs were interested in him but did not want to bother him. Because maybe they did not think they had a shot at him in terms of the timing. We had a guy over there talking with the player in person. The deal was done. I have zero problems battling it out for a player with another big club if we are all going through the same process trying to get him. That’s the way it works.”
Pallotta further added –
“But, at the end of the day, when the deal is done and completely agreed… we all know how it works, the kid comes in for a medical and then it is signed. Other teams know not to come in and do what Barcelona did. Bordeaux should never have done what they did. The legal side will come later, but it is immoral and unethical too.”