Former Barcelona player and manager Xavi Hernandez said Joan Laporta was the one who caused Lionel Messi’s failure in the team three years ago. The Argentinian left the club after being promised a new deal by Laporta two years ago, and the latter’s president then tried to sign him again two years later.
The whole issue is a hotly debated topic at Camp Nou. Messi left the club in tears after Laporta pulled out of his contract on the day he was due to sign in 2021, and there was much speculation about a return following his graduation from Paris Saint-Germain. However, the move did not go through and Messi ended up signing for Inter Miami.
Xavi: Laporta lies about Messi’s failed comeback
The issue, according to Laporta, is that a deal to re-sign Messi in 2023 was impossible due to Barcelona’s salary cap situation. However, manager Xavi told La Vanguardia that this was not the case.
“The president is not telling the truth either. Leo was already signed. In January 2023, after winning the World Cup, we contacted each other, he told me that he wanted to come back, and I saw it. We talked until March, and I told him, ‘OK, if you give me OK, I will tell the president because I think he deserves it as a football player.'”
Xavi notes that La Liga has given OK to Messi’s return.
“The president started negotiating the contract with Leo’s father and we had the green light from LaLiga, but it is the president who has returned to this whole thing.”
Laporta wouldn’t let Messi ‘fight him’
When asked about the reason that led Laporta to take this decision, Xavi said that the president was afraid of a conflict of positions. Messi and his family reportedly did not miss Laporta the way he left Barcelona.
“Laporta told me in no uncertain terms that if Leo came back, he would fight with him and he would not allow that. Suddenly Leo stopped answering my calls because he had been told on the other side that it would not be right.”
So I called his father and said, ‘This is not going to happen, Jorge,’ and he said, ‘Talk to the president.’ And I insisted that we had talked with Leo for five months, it was a done deal, there was no doubt from a football point of view, and financially we would go to Montjuïc and we would have a ‘Last Dance’ like Jordan’s, everything was ready. “”
‘My passion is telling the truth’
Xavi expressed his support for Laporta’s opponent, Victor Font, in the upcoming presidential election that will be held next week. So it makes sense that Xavi was asked about his motives for making such a statement, but the iconic Spanish midfielder has denied he has a deal to return to the club under Font.
“Now I think I will never return to Barca. I have finished my time as a player and coach. From here on, my interest is in telling the truth, and Leo is not coming to Barca because the president does not want him, not because of La Liga or because Jorge Messi is asking for more money – it is a lie. It is the president and his people who cannot tell him that he cannot pay Messi. Do not mismanage that power.”
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It will not be lost on Barcelona fans that the interview was released before the selection week. News of this kind could threaten Laporta’s support, even if he remains the favorite to remain president. After campaigning for a promise to keep Messi in 2021, the idea of Laporta blocking his return for personal gain could be seen as a betrayal of Barcelona fans – that would be Font’s angle.
