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Joan Laporta's Secret Plan to Rebuild A New Barcelona, Without Messi
When Barcelona confirmed that they will not be renewing Lionel Messi’s contract last year and that he would be leaving the club as a free agent, very few saw it coming.
A club legend, an icon who had taken the team to great heights and achieved unprecedented glory, it was always expected that Barça would find some way to address their financial issues and ensure that Messi would stay put.
For a long time, the messages coming from the administration, led by president Joan Laporta, were also hugely optimistic and all things pointed towards the Argentine legend’s renewal.
But in a sudden U-turn, the club decided that it was not possible to go ahead with the extension even though Messi had lowered his wages by half. Eventually, the two ended up parting ways, as the 35-year-old moved to PSG.
Now, reputed journalist Guillem Balague’s new book ‘MESSI’ (h/t Lionel30i on Twitter), sheds some light on the entire episode leading up to his exit and the conversations that were held between the various parties involved.
Laporta won the presidential elections and took over the reins in March 2021. And over the next five months, his stance and messages regarding Messi and his contract were always positive and brimming with optimism as he and the then-captain built their relationship.
It seemed only a matter of ironing out a few details before a contract extension can be finalised, Ballague writes, until suddenly some doubts began to creep in.
It is further claimed that agreements over Messi’s salary had been finalised in the first meeting between Laporta and the superstar’s father and agent, Jorge. However, the club icon’s main demand of building a competitive team had remained unanswered.
Things were so advanced that the club board had already made arrangements for Messi’s contract announcement on August 5, even though they were very well aware of the financial problems. A celebratory dinner had been arranged while the club’s media team was hard at work over an announcement video.
But, on August 4, there was a call between Jorge Messi and Barça vice-president Rafa Yuste when things appeared dodgy. Having received an ambiguous response from Yuste when asked if everything was on track, Messi’s father informed the player about the same.
Upon learning, the 35-year-old immediately reached out to Laporta, who was once again said to be optimistic about the situation.
However, soon after, Jorge received another phone call from Yuste when he was informed that Laporta will not be going through with the contract extension. When asked why was it not happening, Yuste is believed to have said something along the lines of “Laporta isn’t interested anymore.”
Shocked by the sudden U-turn, Messi’s father called Laporta, writes Ballague and he was met with the same response. Laporta told Jorge, “I’m going to do what I want,” claims Ballague in the biography.
When Jorge Messi probed Laporta for the reason and asked if money was an issue, the club president allegedly responded: “I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s over. I’m not risking the club,” prompting a request for a face-to-face meeting from the superstar’s camp.
At this time, it is claimed that Barça spun two narratives about the situation, the first being that Messi’s father had already started talks to join PSG and was ‘tightening the contractual noose’ around the Catalans’ neck.
The second one was that Messi’s entourage had asked for a higher signing-on bonus than previously agreed, which had caused Laporta to change his mind.
Messi had requested previously that the club sign top players and build a competitive team that can challenge for trophies and sought updates on Laporta on that matter. However, his only desire and mandate to his father was that he wanted to stay at Barcelona.
Jorge Messi met with Laporta in Barcelona on August 5, where Laporta once again reiterated his stance: “I’ve thought it through. I’m not doing it. I don’t want to sink the club.”
The president is said to have pointed to the signings of Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia and how the club needed to lower their wage bill, even though Messi had agreed to reduce his salary by 75% for the first season of the new deal and 50% from the next year on.
Laporta’s explanations left no room for any further discussions and he and Jorge Messi ended their meeting with a hug and an agreement to avoid aggravating each other.
Ballague also writes that the CVC deal could have enabled Barça to renew Messi’s contract and La Liga president Javier Tebas had met with Laporta in mid-July to discuss the same. The Barcelona supremo is said to have been ‘overjoyed’ by the possibility and wanted to speed up the CVC agreement.
However, the stance changed once he became aware that the deal could ‘mortgage’ the club’s income for a long time and that the Super League plans would also be affected.
The reputed journalist writes how Laporta is known to be an impulsive person with great strength and confidence. And these traits played a key role in Messi’s exit, with many close to him being left surprised by the late U-turn.
Barcelona’s wage bill dropped to 95% from 110% following Messi’s exit. But, Ballague insists that they could have lowered it by 40% if they cashed in on their ageing players and kept hold of the former captain, who could have generated more income than his salary from sales and sponsors.
Following Messi’s departure, Rakuten, the club’s main sponsors, decided to part ways, while three international companies who were close to signing on also refused without the Argentine at the club. More than 26,000 members withdrew from club membership.
Messi had refused Manchester City twice already as he thought he would continue at Camp Nou. And on the same day that Laporta changed his stance, the Cityzens announced the signing of Jack Grealish (Aug 5).
Instead of earning €138 million per year at Barcelona, including bonuses, Messi would have pocketed around €350 million in total, around half of his previous salary, as per the new deal he would have signed, until Laporta backed out.
Soon enough, though, PSG director Leonardo contacted Messi’s father, Jorge, to see if the news of his exit was indeed true and informed that the doors to Parc des Princes would be open for him.
Messi, anxious from the situation, told Ballague: “I had trouble sleeping, we had trouble relaxing, we spent those days anxious, with all the uncertainty on what would happen after the club’s announcement.“
“I told Antonella and obviously we cried. We had to think of a way to give the news to the kids. We told them back in December that we were staying. We knew it was going to be hard, especially for Thiago.
Jorge and Leonardo eventually decided to enter into talks and were soon able to reach an agreement. Messi himself was convinced after speaking with Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes.
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone also made overtures through Luis Suarez but received a polite no as Messi had no desire to join Barcelona’s direct rivals.
The book also indicates how Laporta denied the request from Messi’s entourage to hold a joint press conference after a few days following the announcement. In the end, Messi was asked to speak alone at his farewell where he broke down.
“I don’t know if the club did, but I did everything I could to stay. It was all arranged. I lowered my salary by 50%. And after that, nobody asked me anything else. All the rest is a lie. I was convinced that I was going to stay here. It was what my family and I wanted.”
Ballague writes Messi’s PSG contract was finalised and signed in a matter of four days after Laporta’s shock U-turn.
There have been recent reports that Laporta wants to mend his relationship with Messi and re-sign him. But, given these accounts of his exit, it would be extremely difficult to see such a move happening.
