Lionel Messi appears close to owning a second Spanish club. After UE Cornella, the Catalan side playing in the fifth division, the Argentine star is set to become the owner of Segunda Division rivals CD Eldense, according to several media outlets.
French newspaper "L'Equipe" report that Messi is poised to buy the club, based near Alicante and playing their matches at the "Nuevo Pepico Amat" stadium.
Here are the key facts about the club, founded in 1921 by a group of Barcelona fans.
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CD Eldense, founded in 1921, are the oldest football club in the province of Alicante. They sit in the city of Elda, around 40 kilometres from the provincial capital.
In more than 100 years, the club have never once played in the Spanish first division. Not for a single season.
One curiosity: the first match in their history came on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1921, against local club Elda FC. Eldense wore Barcelona's colours that day, with black shorts to distinguish them from the Catalans.
The founders, Barcelona fans who belonged to a group nicknamed "the Stubborn Ones", never imagined that the greatest player in the history of the Catalan club would come close, decades later, to buying the team they built. The link to Barcelona still shows clearly in CD Eldense's crest.
Suspicions of match-fixing
On 1 April 2017, Eldense lost to Barcelona B by a shocking 0-12, a historic record for the latter, and went down directly to the fourth division.
Two days later, one of the team's players accused four of his teammates of deliberately losing by that heavy scoreline in the group three Segunda B fixture, and called for an investigation into possible manipulation linked to illegal betting networks in Asia.
Authorities soon arrested five people. Among them was Italian coach Filippo Di Pierro, who had taken charge only three months earlier following a takeover of the club by an Italian investment group, amid suspicions of links to the Calabrian mafia.
Investigators also examined four other matches suspected of being fixed that same season. All the accused were acquitted when the trial ended in February 2026.
Return to the second division after 59 years
On 25 June 2023, CD Eldense secured their return to the Spanish second division after three consecutive promotions, ending a 59-year absence.
Promotion came in a thrilling play-off final against Castilla Real Madrid. The first leg finished 1-1, then the second leg ended 3-3 after extra time. Eldense sealed the ticket thanks to their superior regular-season standing.
Their stay did not last long. The team finished 16th and then 19th in their first two seasons, dropping down in 2025, before bouncing straight back last spring. The current campaign marks the club's eighth appearance in the second division.
A bankruptcy that almost threatened the club
In December 2019, Eldense came close to bankruptcy. Local businessman Pascual Perez then stepped in, alongside other figures from the Elda business community, to save it.
Early in 2020, Perez, who held both the president and owner roles at the time, paid off tax debts of 200,000 euros that directly threatened the club's future.
On the sporting side, appointing Manu Gil as sporting director, a post he currently holds at Tenerife, helped put the club back on the road to recovery.
A stadium bearing the name of a former goalkeeper
Eldense's stadium carries the name of former goalkeeper Pepico Amat, who played several seasons with the club and also turned out for Hercules and Espanyol in the Spanish first division.
After retiring, Amat worked as a coach in both football and basketball, the other hugely popular sport in the city of Elda.
The "Nuevo Pepico Amat", which replaced the old stadium in 2012, is the team's current home and holds 5,576 spectators, according to "L'Equipe".
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