BARCELONA:
Former Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said the club’s president Joan Laporta scuppered the return of all-time great Lionel Messi in 2023 to avoid a power struggle.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner left Barca for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and then two years later moved to MLS side Inter Miami.
“Leo was signed, in January 2023 after winning the World Cup, we got in touch and he told me he wanted to come back,” Xavi told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia late on Sunday.
“We had the green light from La Liga (financially), but it was the president who threw it away…
“Laporta told me, word for word, that if Leo came back he was going to wage war against him and that he couldn’t allow that. And then suddenly Leo stopped answering my calls because he’d been told that it couldn’t be done.”
Xavi said everything was ready for Messi’s return, there was “no doubt” in a football sense and “we were going to do a last dance, like (former NBA star Michael) Jordan’s”.
Laporta, who resigned as president a few weeks ago to run for re-election this week, suggested Monday former coach Xavi was bitter and said Messi’s father and agent Jorge had told him the superstar had decided not to come back.
“With Xavi I saw we were going to lose and with (current coach Hansi) Flick that we will win,” Laporta said at a presidential debate Monday.
“I understand that (Xavi) is hurt — with the same players Flick wins.”
Laporta said he sent a contract to Jorge Messi who later came to his house and told him that “here there would be too much pressure” if the forward returned.
Messi is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals and won a club-record 34 trophies at Camp Nou.
Laporta also claimed Barca rejected a 250 million euro ($288 million) offer from PSG for teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, reported to have been made in the summer of 2024.
