Joan Laporta opens about Barcelona deceiving Lionel Messi.
In August of this year, one of the biggest stories ever in footballing history exploded. Lionel Messi, arguably the best player of the current generation and Barcelona legend, filed an official request for the termination of his contract with the club. Messi had enough of the club’s mismanagement and “lies”, and thus wanted to leave the sinking ship for good.
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Although the Argentine could not have his wishes fulfilled due to a complication in his contract, his future with the club is still up for speculation. Many critics and pundits believe that the 33-year-old will leave the Catalans to join a club like Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain but Presidential candidate, Joan Laporta, believes that he can convince the veteran to stay.
Laporta who had previously held the Presidential spot at football club Barcelona from 2003 to 2010 proclaims that Messi has been lied to by the club on several occasions and that only he can keep the legend at the club. In a recent interview with ESPN, Laporta said,
"“[The club] have repeatedly lied to him and, on top of that, things haven’t gone as everyone wanted. He is at a point in his career where he still wants to be successful and win titles.“He cannot keep accepting that other teams win the Champions League and Barca, with Lionel, the best player in the history of the game, do not have a team competitive enough to be able to win it.”Source ESPN"
The candidate then goes on to say that he has already won Messi’s trust during his first spell of Presidency. Laporta says that Messi is a symbol at Barcelona, one that has a lot of significance and history to it. The Spanish politician promises to propose a good and exciting project to Messi, one which will keep the Argentine at the club beyond this season. The number 10 will just not look right with another club’s jersey on him.
He also expresses his concerns towards Barcelona’s huge debt which is nearing 500 million euros. He says that when he came into the club in 2003, the club was in a similar state of despair although not this extreme, however, the similarity of the two situations can’t be overlooked. He reckons that he knows how to deal with this overwhelming task and is ready to make a plan for wage cuts as well as achievements on the pitch.
Laporta and Victor Font are the two men who are most likely to win the elections. The election will be held on the 24th of January and whoever is elected, must try to secure Messi to the club as losing a player of his caliber for free could destroy the club.