DailyTransfer

Mercato Barça: Laporta's big announcement on Messi

15/05/23 09:20 by Fabien Borne

In the euphoria of the 27th Spanish championship won by Barça, Joan Laporta confirmed his intention to repatriate Leo Messi, at the end of his contract with PSG on June 30.

Barça won on Sunday night the 27th Spanish championship in their history at the home of their neighbors Espanyol. Joan Laporta, the president of Barça, who returned to the club two years ago, was ecstatic and celebrated the title with his players.

In the aftermath, Laporta made the rounds of the Catalan media and was inevitably asked about a possible return of Messi this summer, at the end of his contract with PSG: "We will do everything we can for Messi to come back to Barça," said Laporta to Gerard Romero on Twitch. A statement that made the buzz on social networks.

This Monday morning, Laporta also gave an interview to TV3 and confided at length on the Messi case: "I talked to Leo to rectify the situation that was created when I had to put the institution before everything else, even him, the best player in the world. We have been messaging each other lately. The truth is that the conversation has been affectionate and pleasant. I congratulated him on the World Cup. We have known each other for many years, there is a relationship," said Laporta first.

"Barça can compete with the whole world"

Asked about the Saudi competition in this case, Laporta was confident: "With all due respect to Saudi Arabia, which is doing a very good job, Barça is Barça. And Barça is his home. Barça can compete with the whole world. History is with us and the feeling of our 400 million fans is too strong."

Laporta warned, however, that he would not be able to compete economically with Saudi Arabia, which offers more than €400m per year to the Argentine: "We don't want to go into big numbers because that would be regressive. These are not figures that we have to deal with, neither with Messi nor with anyone else. We are working on building a very competitive team for next season. We will see if our sustainability plan is approved by La Liga."

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