Xavi Explains Why Lionel Messi Will Never Return to Barcelona, Talks Failed Contract After World Cup

Former Barcelona manager Xavi offered his side of the story about the club's failure to bring Lionel Messi back into the fold in 2023, laying the blame entirely at the feet of Barca president Joan Laporta.

"Laporta doesn't tell the truth there either. Leo was signed," he told La Vanguardia. "In Jan. 2023, after becoming world champion, we contacted him and he told me that he was excited to return and I see him. Laporta began negotiating the contract with Leo's father and we had the green light from La Liga, but it was the president who backed out on everything. Laporta told me that if Leo came back, there would be a wage war and he couldn't afford that. And then suddenly Leo stopped picking up the phone because they had told him that it could not be done. ... I was dying for Messi to come back so I could coach him, but they turned us against each other."

These are bombshell revelations if Xavi's version of events is indeed true.

Messi's initial departure in 2021 for PSG was shocking, and clearly painful to both the player and the club's supporters. Barcelona had accrued such massive debts at the time that it simply couldn't afford to pay the player.

Sid Lowe wrote for ESPN back in 2023 that Messi expressed, "'We never, never wanted to leave Barcelona,' he said. 'I had to go to Paris.' That's had to, not chose to. He said he was 'hurt,' 'angry,' that it had been 'ugly.' He had felt like he had been made out to be the 'bad guy, and I didn't like that.' He 'missed Barcelona,' he said. He had 'two bad years' at PSG. 'I didn't enjoy it,' he said."

A Barcelona would have made sense, though there was distrust from Messi's side, as Lowe noted at the time.

"We hope he wants to join us," Xavi told reporters in 2023, and a reunion between the sides was "99 percent in Messi's hands."

Instead, Messi chose to join Inter Miami, with the reported reasoning being that the superstar was wary of whether Barcelona would actually be able to register his contract in time for La Liga's season. The club responded with a rather cold and dismissive statement.

"On Monday, Jorge Messi, the player's father and representative, informed club president Joan Laporta of the player's decision to join Inter Miami," it read. "This despite having been presented with a proposal from Barca, in consideration of the desire of both Barcelona and Messi for him to once again wear the club's colors. President Laporta understood and respected Messi's decision to want to compete in a league with fewer demands, further away from the spotlight and the pressure he has been subject to in recent years."

Xavi is suggesting, however, that it was Laporta who in fact pulled out of the agreement with Messi's camp, and not the other way around. Or at the very least, provided Messi with enough uncertainty over the situation that he ultimately decided he needed to seek a a more stable and guaranteed opportunity.

Given that club members will vote in the next president on March 15—Laporta is one of three finalists, alongside Víctor Font and Marc Ciria—the timing of Xavi's comments hardly feels coincidental. The former manager, who was fired by Laporta in May 2024 and replaced by Hansi Flick, has backed Font during the election process.