Lionel Messi admits he considered leaving Barcelona amid 2013 tax fraud investigation

Five moment Barcelona captain Lionel Messi and Ballon Dor winner has shown he contemplated leaving the club in 2013.
The Argentina international, who has been in Barcelona because he was 13 and is their all-time top scorer, said he feltbadly handled by Spain if he had been investigated for tax fraud in 2013.
He had been found guilty in 2016 with his father Jorge of defrauding the Spanish authorities of 4.2m between 2007 and 2009 over income gained from image rights.
Messi was handed a prison sentence of 21 months and ordered to pay a fine of $2m. After he managed to exchange his sentence to get a fine of $250,000, as in Spain defendants without a prior conviction are permitted to serve any sentence of under two years on probation, he didnt serve any jail time.
He had been investigated in 2013, beginning lots of of tax fraud cases against high-profile footballers from Spain such as Marcelo, Javier Mascherano and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sincerely, in the moment I thought about leaving, Messi admitted to Barcelona-based radio station RAC1 in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.
Not because of Barcelona but since I wished to leave Spain, I felt very badly treated and that I did not want to keep here any longer.
I had my doors available to a lot of clubs but I never got an official offer because everyone knew I really wanted to remain. This situation went way beyond my feelings for Barca.
Messi implied that the tax authorities made an example from him since they cracked down following the financial crisis hit of Spain on tax fraud.
I had been the first and that is why they came down so hard on me personally. They revealed it was going to be like that for everybody and created a good example of me. It was tough because of everything that was occurring at that moment, he explained.