Former Barcelona midfield prodigy Ilaix Moriba has slammed the club for spreading false claims agter he completed a transfer to RB Leipzig.
Speaking to the media, as relayed by Goal.com. Ilaix Moriba has accused Barcelona of speaking lies in the press during his contract standoff with the club earlier this summer prior to his transfer to RB Leipzig.
Moriba came through the youth ranks at Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and made his first-team debut for the club last January. He went on to feature 18 times in the second half of the 2020/21 season, scoring one goal and setting up three more.
However, things between Moriba and Barcelona went south over the past few months due to a breakdown in contract negotiations. The 18-year-old is said to have rejected multiple contract offers from the Blaugrana due to his wage demands being not met.
Eventually, he ended up signing for RB Leipzig late in the transfer window, following which he has shed light on how things went down between him and Barcelona while calling the Catalan giants out for spreading lies in the media.
Ilaix Moriba (RB Leipzig): "The last few months have been the most difficult of my life, we have received ugly messages but we have been able to endure to be here, I did not deserve those messages." [via sport] pic.twitter.com/uZmfLyKbXA
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 1, 2021
“The last few months have been the hardest of my life, we [my family] have received abusive messages but we have been able to get over it to be here today,” said the midfielder. “I don’t deserve these messages.
“They [people at the club] have said many things that are not true and we have had to keep tight-lipped because of the respect that we have for Barcelona. The things that they have said in the press have not been fair.”
However, Moriba insisted that he bears no ill-will towards Barcelona nor the fanbase, despite having been at the receiving end of some vile messages in the recent past. “I have improved at Barcelona with the support of the fans, but over the past few months they have not known how to behave,” he said.
“I am not going to judge the whole fanbase based on these few people. I will always have Barcelona in my heart, it has been a complicated few months, but it has passed and I wish the best for the club, especially to Ansu, as I have seen that they have given him the No 10 shirt and he’s the most suitable one to wear it, I wish him the best.”