BARCELONA (SPAIN) (ITALPRESS) – After more than a year and a half of silence, Xavi tells his truth. The former midfielder and coach of the Blaugrana opens up in an interview with “La Vanguardia” and points the finger at current Barcelona president Joan Laporta, accusing him of having prevented the return of Lionel Messi during his time in charge. “It was done,” reveals Xavi, who coached Barça from 2021 to 2024. “We spoke in January 2023, after he won the World Cup, and he told me he wanted to come back. We kept in touch until March, and I told him, ‘As soon as you give me the OK, I’ll tell the president.’ We also had the OK from La Liga (a circumstance, however, denied immediately by Tebas, editor’s note), but Laporta blew everything up. He told me verbatim that if Messi returned he’d wage war on him and that he couldn’t afford it. Everything was ready; it was supposed to be his ‘last dance,’ like Michael Jordan. Laporta disappointed me in the end. He fired me without telling me the truth, influenced by Alejandro Echevarría, who is even more important at the club than he is—a reference to Laporta’s former brother-in-law. He’s the one who really runs the club, we were friends, but he betrayed me. In those months I talked to him because I knew that he was the one who decided everything.”
Xavi is very clear about his future: “I will never return to Barça. I’ve already had my day, both as a player and as a coach. Messi didn’t return because Laporta didn’t want him. It’s not true that his father asked for more money or that La Liga wouldn’t allow it,” insists the former midfielder, who also acknowledges his own faults (“The first year I told the president that without certain signings I wouldn’t continue. The following year, my level of demand dropped, and I blame myself for that. Jordi Cruyff left because of the lack of respect he received at the club. Then they let go of Mateu Alemany: I should have left too“) and speaks of Flick, his successor. “I like his team: dominant and attacking. The fans enjoy it, and I’m happy because I think we’ve left a very good foundation. The backbone is made up of Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Balde, Cubarsí, Fermín, players we had counted on.” Regarding his relationship with the German coach, “two weeks before I was fired, I asked him if the rumors about him were true, and he said no. The club had asked him not to say anything, so he later came to my house to apologize.” The now former Barça coach, finally, felt like the victim of “a media campaign against me. They told Sergi Roberto, Araújo, Pedri, and Raphinha that I wanted to sell them. But that wasn’t true. There was no transfer list signed by me.”
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
