Earthquake at Barcelona: Xavi Hernandez claims Joan Laporta sabotaged Lionel Messi return

Former Barcelona player and manager Xavi Hernandez has claimed that Joan Laporta was responsible for the failed return of Lionel Messi to the club three years ago. The Argentine left the club after being promised a new deal by Laporta two years earlier, and the most recent sitting president then tried to sign him again two years later.

The entire matter is the subject of much controversy at Camp Nou. Messi left the club in tears after Laporta withdrew the contract offer on the day he was meant to sign it in 2021, and there was heavy speculation about a return after his spell at Paris Saint-Germain. However the move did not go through and Messi ended up signing for Inter Miami.

Xavi: Laporta is lying about failed Messi return

The story, according to Laporta, was that the deal to re-sign Messi in 2023 was impossible due to Barcelona’s salary limit situation. However then manager Xavi has told La Vanguardia that this was not the case.

“The president isn’t telling the truth there either. Leo was already signed. In January 2023, after winning the World Cup, we got in touch, and he told me he was keen to come back, and I saw it. We talked until March, and I told him, ‘Okay, when you give me the OK, I’ll tell the president because I see it as a good fit for him as a footballer’.”

Xavi notes that La Liga had given the OK for Messi’s return.

“The president started negotiating the contract with Leo’s father and we had the green light from LaLiga, but it’s the president who went back on the whole thing.”

Laporta wouldn’t allow Messi ‘to wage war on him’

When asked about the reasoning behind Laporta’s decision, Xavi said that the president feared a power struggle. Messi and his family reportedly held no shortage of rancour towards Laporta for the manner of his exit from Barcelona.

“Laporta told me point-blank that if Leo came back, he was going to wage war against him and that he couldn’t allow it. And then suddenly Leo stopped answering my calls because he’d been told on the other end that it couldn’t be done.”

“So I called his father and said, ‘This can’t be, Jorge,’ and he said, ‘Talk to the president.’ And I insisted that we’d been talking with Leo for five months, it was a done deal, there were no doubts from a footballing perspective, and financially we were going to Montjuïc and we were going to have a ‘Last Dance’ like Jordan’s, everything was ready.” ”

‘My interest is in telling the truth’

Xavi has expressed support for Laporta’s opponent Victor Font in the upcoming presidential elections, which take place next week. Hence it made sense Xavi was quizzed on his motives for making such a statement, but the iconic Spain midfielder denied that he has an agreement to return to the club under Font.

“I now think I’ll never return to Barca. I’ve already completed my time as a player and coach. From here on out, my interest is in telling the truth, and Leo isn’t coming to Barça because the president doesn’t want him, not because of La Liga or because Jorge Messi is asking for more money – that’s a lie. It’s the president and his people who are telling him no, that he can’t afford it, that he has all the power and that Messi will mismanage that power.”

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It will not be lost on Barcelona fans that the interview has been released just before the week where elections will take place. News of this kind could threaten Laporta’s support, even if he remains the heavy favourite to remain as president. Having campaigned on the promise of retaining Messi in 2021, the idea that Laporta prevented his return for personal gain may well be seen as a betrayal for Barcelona fans – certainly that will be the angle Font takes.

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