Lionel Messi’s Barcelona Return: Explaining Xavi, Joan Laporta’s Explosive War of Words

Barcelona’s presidential election was already set to be a seismic event, but the campaign trail has detonated into open warfare over the ghost of Lionel Messi. Four years after the Argentine’s tear-stained farewell, the greatest player in the club’s history has become the fault line on which Joan Laporta and challenger Víctor Font are trading vicious recriminations—and the man pulling the pin is club legend Xavi Hernández.

The spark is the summer of 2023, when Messi—fresh from lifting the World Cup with Argentina—attempted to script a romantic homecoming. Laporta, who authorised Messi’s 2021 exit, insists La Liga’s financial straitjacket made the move impossible. “We prepared the contract and sent it to Jorge Messi in mid-March,” the incumbent president reiterated during a televised debate. “In May, Jorge told me it couldn’t be done; they preferred Miami.”

Xavi, speaking to La Vanguardia, calls that narrative a fabrication. “Leo was signed,” the former midfielder turned coach said flatly. “In January 2023 he told me he wanted to return. We talked for five months; everything was ready, even La Liga’s approval. The president negotiated with Leo’s father, then threw it out.” According to Xavi, Laporta privately confessed he “couldn’t allow” Messi’s return because “he was going to wage war against him.”

The claim strikes at the heart of Laporta’s re-election pitch: that strict economic rules, not presidential will, blocked the prodigal son. Messi himself cited finances when he chose Inter Miami, saying he “didn’t want to leave my future in someone else’s hands” after the trauma of 2021. Yet Xavi insists the obstacle was political, not economic: “It’s the president who doesn’t want him, not La Liga or Jorge Messi asking for more money.”

Font has seized on the rift, pledging to remove sporting director Deco—an ally of Laporta—and hinting at structural upheaval that could even include converting the fan-owned club into a limited company. Xavi, who backs Font, believes Messi, now 38 and captaining Miami, could still “help Barcelona score goals and provide final passes” and promises a ceremonial return “in some capacity.”

Laporta counters that Xavi is being “used” by Font, pointing to Hansi Flick’s domestic treble after Xavi’s 2024 sacking. “With almost the same players, Xavi lost and Flick won,” Laporta said, accusing his former coach of attacking straw men rather than the board. The president also dismissed Xavi’s assertion that Alejandro Echeverría, Laporta’s former brother-in-law, secretly pulls the strings.

Messi, for his part, has stayed publicly neutral, yet his shadow looms over the 15 March vote. Nearly 150,000 club members will decide whether to reward Laporta’s financial austerity or gamble on Font’s promise of sweeping change—and perhaps a belated second act for the icon who never wanted to leave.

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