Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 23:40• Chris Meijer

Sergio Aguero has not accepted the number 10 shirt at Barcelona as a sign of respect to Lionel Messi. It was initially reported that the Catalans’ dressing room had put forward the 33-year-old attacker as the new wearer of the iconic jersey number. However, Agüero decided not to accept the number 10 jersey, so they eventually chose to give it to Ansu Fati.

“I did not take the number 10 jersey from Messi out of respect. It’s a code of friendship. They offered me the jersey number 10 and my teammates encouraged me, ‘Use 10!’ It doesn’t matter if I wanted it or not. I came here with the thought: I’m going to play with Leo and Leo is going to wear number 10,” Agüero tells El Periodico. In conversation with RAC1 the attacker who came over from Manchester City elaborates on Messi’s departure. Almost immediately after it was announced that Messi was leaving, reports surfaced that Aguero wanted to get out of his contract with Barcelona.

“I don’t understand why I was told I wanted to leave. When I signed, Messi hadn’t signed anything yet. They had yet to come to an agreement. It was reported that I had a clause in my contract, but that was not the case,” said Aguero, who has committed to Barcelona until mid-2023. “I told my agent that money didn’t matter because I really wanted to go to Barcelona. Every player wants to play for Barcelona. There are a lot of players who want to come and play at Barcelona for less in the current financial situation.”

“A lot is asked of you at Barcelona. The training sessions are very intense, you can see that in the matches,” continues Aguero. He will be out of circulation until mid-November with a calf injury, but hopes to be able to make his comeback a few weeks earlier. “To become a basic player, you have to perform well and put yourself in the spotlight with the coach. Koeman is very direct, he immediately says what he thinks. Whether he likes you or not, he will always say it. That is very nice for a player.”