By OkayGoal 
Former Barcelona coach Xavi claims Lionel Messi had agreed to return to Camp Nou in 2023 but the move was blocked by president Joan Laporta.
Messi had just won the World Cup with Argentina and was exploring his options with his contract at Paris Saint-Germain due to expire that summer. Then Barca boss Xavi spoke to his former team-mate and a verbal agreement was in place for Messi to return to the club for whom he had scored a record 672 goals before leaving in 2021 with the financially stricken Catalan giants unable to keep him.
The deal was nearing completion but, according to Xavi, Laporta pulled the plug with Messi eventually going to Inter Miami. Laporta has always claimed it was Messi who opted against moving back to Barca due to the pressure it would have created.
In an explosive interview with La Vanguardia, Xavi said: “The president is lying about what happened with Messi. Leo was signed. In January of 2023, after he had won the World Cup, I spoke to him and he told me he was excited to return.
“We spoke until March and I told him: ‘Once you give me the OK, I will tell the president because it works perfectly on a football level.’
“The president negotiated the contract with Leo’s dad [Jorge] and we had the green light from La Liga financially, but it was the president who pulled out.
“He told me verbatim that if Messi came back, he would make a war [against Laporta]. My interest is in telling the truth. Leo didn’t come because the president didn’t want him.
“It’s a lie to say it’s because La Liga [wouldn’t allow it financially] or Jorge Messi asked for more money. It was the president and his people who said they could not allow it, that he [Laporta] has all the power and that Messi would handle that badly.”
Messi wanted a ‘Last Dance’, like Michael Jordan
Xavi says he and Messi did not speak for a while after the move broke down.
“I tried to talk to Leo and he didn’t pick up the phone,” he added. “I talked to his father and told him that I didn’t understand anything and he told me ‘talk to the president’.
“It was all done, it was going to be his ‘last dance’, like Michael Jordan, everything was ready.”
Xavi ended up leaving Barca in May 2024, four months after the club persuaded him to reconsider his original decision to walk away at the end of that season.
He says he was ultimately fired by Alejandro Echevarría, Laporta’s former brother-in-law.
Xavi claims: “He [Echevarria] practically runs the club. I had a close relationship [with him], of friendship, but it ended up failing me completely.
“In January I told him that I would not continue for the sake of the club and mine. I am meeting with Echevarría during those months because I know that he is the one who decides everything. He insists that he wants me to continue, that I reconsider the decision. But then he calls me after the defeat to PSG in the Champions League to tell me that the board was not sure about my continuity.
“I go to the president’s house and there Laporta lies to me again. He told me that he doesn’t see Barça without me. Then Echevarría arrives and says that my staff is a disaster, and that the physical preparation is not good enough.”
Barcelona chief Laporta dismisses Xavi’s claims ahead of election
Xavi’s outburst comes at a bad time for Laporta with the club’s elections being held on Sunday. Laporta, who has been Barca president for 12 years across two spells, is standing against Victor Font.
He dismissed Xavi’s claims and says his sacking was right for the club.
“When I see what Xavi has said, I think about [current Barça coach] Hansi Flick,” Laporta told RAC1. “Being Barça president is a tough job and you have to make difficult decisions. I did what I had to do.
“With Xavi, I saw that we were going to lose and that with Flick we were going to win. I understand that he’s hurting. With the same players, Flick is winning.
“As for Messi, this is how it was: In 2023, I was told Messi wanted to return and I sent the contract to Jorge Messi, who later came to my house and told me that there would be too much pressure back here and that they would prefer to go to Miami.”