On Monday, the president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, stated that the club will “do everything possible” to get Lionel Messi back to the club over the offseason. Messi is an Argentine superstar.
The attacker now playing for Paris Saint-Germain is poised to quit the club once his current contract ends in the summer. The newly crowned champions of La Liga, Barcelona, are aiming to re-sign their all-time leading goalscorer despite considerable interest from Saudi Arabia.
After a wonderful era at Barcelona in which he won four Champions League wins and ten La Liga titles, where he is still revered by the people there, Messi has had two lackluster seasons in Paris. This comes after he had a glorious era at Barcelona in which he won 10 La Liga trophies and four Champions League titles.
Laporta has stated that he has attempted to repair the harm to their relationship caused by Messi’s departure in 2021 by having a conversation with him.
Messi expressed a desire to remain at Barcelona, but the club was in over one billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in debt and was unable to afford to keep him.
“I have spoken to Leo to somehow redirect a situation that occurred, in which I had to put the club ahead of everything, even him, who is the best player in the world,” Laporta said in an interview with TV3, the regional public television station in Catalonia. “I had to put the club ahead of everything, even him, who is the best player in the world.”
“The truth is that it was a very affectionate conversation, very pleasant, and we have also been sending each other messages lately — I congratulated him on winning the World Cup.”
Laporta made the statement on Twitch in the early hours of Monday morning, just after Barcelona clinched the La Liga title with a 4-2 victory away at Espanyol. He claimed that “we will do everything possible” to sign Messi.
On the other hand, while he was speaking on TV3, he was more reserved.
“He is a player for Paris Saint-Germain, and what we will do is improve the team in all areas, and we have already worked on that,” said Laporta. “We have already worked on that.”
“I believe it would be doing me a disservice to talk about these questions about Leo, because he is a member of a team like Paris Saint-Germain, and we have to wait until the end of the season, until it is over, and then we can talk more calmly about this,” the player said. “It would do me a disservice to talk about these questions about Leo.”
According to a story from AFP from the previous week, insiders close to the discussions claimed that it was “done deal” that Messi will relocate to Saudi Arabia for the upcoming season.
Nevertheless, Laporta stated that Barcelona might still fight for Messi’s signing despite the money that is reportedly on offer in the Middle East (400 million dollars per year).
“With all due respect to Saudi Arabia, Barca is Barca, and it is his home,” concluded Laporta. “With all due respect to Saudi Arabia.”
“We are capable of competing with anyone. We have the support of history; the sentiments are too powerful; and we have more than 400 million admirers all over the world.
For Barcelona to be allowed to function freely after complying with the financial fair play criteria of La Liga, the club has to achieve savings of over 200 million euros or generate new money.