Did Laporta betray Messi twice? Xavi reveals a stunning surprise

Speaking on the "Bracar Gupta" podcast on YouTube, the former Barcelona coach revealed he had stayed in personal contact with Messi for four months and pushed hard for a return to the club.

Xavi said: "We were in contact for four months. Messi badly wanted to return to Barcelona, and I was 100% in favour of it."

The coaching staff shared his enthusiasm about the prospect of working with Messi again.

"Messi himself had a lot of hope, and I and the entire coaching staff were waiting for it with great expectations," he added, according to what was reported by the Barça Universal website.

Everything changed, though, because of one decision from club president Joan Laporta.

He said: "But in the end, president Laporta decided that he did not want to sign Messi again. Suddenly, the president cancelled everything."

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Xavi called the club's sudden about-turn unexpected and embarrassing, especially after he had held several conversations with his former team-mate.

He said: "That's true, and it was very strange. It was very difficult for me to tell Messi that the return would not happen."

Messi's exit from Barcelona in 2021 had already wounded the club's supporters, so the prospect of a return after his World Cup triumph sent excitement soaring. That Xavi has now confirmed Messi himself was desperate to come back makes the collapse of the deal sting all the more, according to the same website.

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Xavi's remarks drag the tangled relationship between Messi and Laporta back into the spotlight. They reveal how the Argentine took another blow from the Barcelona president years after leaving the club. Rewind to 2021, and the attempts to keep Messi at Barcelona collapsed despite all the earlier promises and reassurances. The club later announced that financial constraints and La Liga rules blocked the registration of his new contract.

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For years, Messi tore it up at Barcelona but couldn't reproduce those levels for his national team. Everything changed once he left the Catalan club. Argentina finally clicked with their talisman. Perhaps a reunion with Barcelona was never on the cards, because Messi saw out the final years of his career far from the club his name had defined.

Inter Miami came next. There, Messi rewrote the record books in the American league and delivered a record-breaking World Cup campaign at the age of 39.

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