Laporta stopped Messi’s return to Barcelona to avoid the power struggle: Xavi

Former Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said club president Joan Laporta thwarted the great Lionel Messi’s return in 2023 to avoid a power struggle.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner left Barca for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and moved to MLS side Inter Miami two years later.

«Leo was signed. In January 2023, after winning the World Cup, we got in touch and he told me he wanted to come back,» Xavi told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia late on Sunday.

«We had the green light from La Liga (financially), but it was the president who threw it away…

«Laporta told me word for word that if Leo came back he was going to make war against him and he couldn’t allow that. Read more: asd4. And then Leo suddenly stopped answering my calls because he was told this couldn’t be done.»

Xavi said everything was ready for Messi’s return, there was «no doubt» in a football sense and «we were going to do a last dance, like that of (former NBA star Michael) Jordan».

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Laporta, who resigned as president a few weeks ago to run for re-election this week, suggested on Monday that former coach Xavi was bitter and said Messi’s father and agent Jorge had told him the superstar had decided not to return.

“With Xavi I saw that we were going to lose and with (current coach Hansi) Flick that we were going to win,” Laporta said during a presidential debate on Monday.

“I understand that (Xavi) is injured – with the same players, Flick wins.”

Laporta said he had sent a contract to Jorge Messi, who later came to his house and told him “there would be too much pressure here” if the striker returned.

Messi is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals and won a club record 34 trophies at Camp Nou.

Laporta also claimed that Barcelona had rejected a €250 million offer from PSG for teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, which was said to have been made in the summer of 2024.

Published on March 9, 2026