The Barcelona president referred to the Argentine’s frustrated return to Can Barça.
Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona, gave an extensive interview to the newspaper “Sport” in which he said that Barça has a “better team than Real Madrid”, but he also spoke on behalf of “Mundo Deportivo” and pointed out that the De The Catalan club had “defined everything” with Jorge Messi, father of Lionel Messi, for the return of the Argentine striker to Can Barça.
These were Laporta’s statements in “Sportive World” about Leo Messi:
His eyes lit up when he talked about Messi months ago.
Yes, because it solved a situation that I didn’t know how to handle and despite everything I felt I had to do it and put the club above the best in the world. There were possibilities, we agreed that it would be like this. The player wanted to, the father too, but the rhythms are different. We didn’t want what happened last time to happen to us and we told them we would let them know if we were honest. Then a while passed, the whole contract was approved, but Jorge wanted to come and talk to me and told us that he had chosen Inter Miami because he had spent some very difficult seasons in Paris, where he was under a lot of pressure, that he would be calmer in Miami and I could think about the national team and even though I wanted to come to Barça, I didn’t want to spend another year like that. It’s understandable and we wanted to work on a super tribute to Messi that Barca should do.
How are the current relations with Messi?
Good, right. We didn’t talk anymore. We wish him the best in Miami and Barça is his home. It is a relationship that ended when he went to Paris, it resumed without achieving what both parties wanted and now it is correct.
Messi said there was no formal offer from Barca. What happened there?
Man, we had permission from LaLiga to fit Leo’s contract. It was something that was discussed with Jorge and everything was defined.
And the tribute?
Someone told me to do it on the day of the 125th anniversary and a reunion with all those who made Barça great in these 125 years would be great.
And do you see him playing again at Barça?
I see it more complicated and it would be necessary to ask him. This time he had the idea to come, we wanted him to come, following Xavi, the board and myself. It’s not given. Leo takes good care of himself, he has exceptional talent and was always able to deliver because he was always decisive, as shown in the World Cup, but I’m not going to get wet.
And with Busquets and maybe Alba also there, the Barça brand will be very present at Inter Miami.
They represented a lot and yesterday a businessman told me that we should have more shirts in Latin America and especially in Miami. They identify much more with Barça than with any other team. Even if they don’t play for Barça, their Barça shirts are still highly regarded. They grew up at Barça and didn’t finish here, but that doesn’t mean they had a great podium.
Source: Goal