Lionel Messi has received a reassuring message from Spain as the Inter Miami star weighs up a major investment move.
Rubén Alfaro, the Mayor of Elda, used a press conference on Wednesday to spell out what it would mean for the city to have a global figure like Messi owning Deportivo Eldense.
According to the newspaper "Marca", he insisted the club will keep receiving municipal support should the deal go through.
"In the talks held with those close to Messi, they took into account that Eldense is a historic club, being the oldest in the province of Alicante, in addition to achieving two promotions to professional football in the past three years," he said.
On his meetings with the Messi camp, the mayor added that they "witnessed the support of the city council in recent years", and that "since it became a public limited sports company in 2022, it has supported the club with more than four million euros under a sponsorship agreement worth one million euros per season".
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Alfaro confirmed he had made clear in those contacts that "the club will continue to receive the support of the city council" in a project built, in his words, around "training and grassroots football".
He signed off by saying: "It is a great opportunity for the city that someone like Lionel Messi has noticed our club and can put Elda on the map both nationally and internationally."
Should the deal go through, Messi will become the first Argentine footballer to own a professional club in Spain.
Reports yesterday confirmed the forward has struck a preliminary agreement to acquire Eldense, one of the Spanish second division clubs. He will take the club's entire shareholding without any intervention from other parties.
It marks his move into the business world of Spanish professional football, should the deal be confirmed, and strengthens his presence after he snapped up Cornellà, a Catalan third division club, earlier this year.