“He refused to greet me,” says Joan Laporta, describing tense relations with Messi.
Former Barça president Joan Laporta revealed that a chilly exchange at the Ballon d’Or ceremony confirmed that his relationship with Lionel Messi would never be the same since his departure in 2021.
The former president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, acknowledged that his relationship with Lionel Messi would never be the same, referencing a notable moment during the Ballon d’Or ceremony. In an interview with Catalunya Ràdio, the Catalan leader revisited his reunion with the Argentine star after Messi left Barça in the summer of 2021. Leaving as a free agent due to the club’s serious financial difficulties, Messi had joined Paris Saint-Germain before signing with Inter Miami CF.
Laporta explained that he crossed paths with his former captain two years later, in 2023, at the Ballon d’Or ceremony. A clearly cold moment. “My relationship with Messi is no longer the same. At the Ballon d’Or ceremony, I went to greet him, but he preferred not to shake my hand. Since then, there has been some rapprochement, and I hope that this will continue. The relationship is tense, but he is a Barça legend,” he said.
The Barcelona president thus admits that the scars from the 2021 departure are not fully healed. At the time, Messi was about to renew, but the deal had been canceled, the club no longer able to afford his contract under La Liga’s financial rules.
Two years later, the possibility of a return to Catalonia had been discussed, without it coming to anything. La Pulga had ultimately chosen Miami, closing a chapter already filled with emotion between the player and his lifelong club. Despite these lingering tensions, Laporta did not hesitate to stress the essential: Lionel Messi remains, whatever happens, an eternal icon of FC Barcelona.
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