Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez has given a lengthy interview and taken aim at Joan Laporta ahead of the forthcoming elections.
Xavi has already pledged his support to Victor Font and has now spoken out about his exit from the club and also revealed that a deal had been agreed for Lionel Messi to return – until Laporta made sure it did not happen.
“After leaving, I decided not to make any statements out of respect for Barça. People know how much I love the club, my whole family are Barça fans…,” he told
La Vanguardia. “I feel the need to explain myself; it’s inside me, and I need to clarify it.
“That’s how this Barça works, it’s practically run by Alejandro Echevarría. He was someone with whom I had a close, friendly relationship, and that’s why his departure from Barça is perhaps the biggest disappointment. He completely let me down.”
Xavi went on to talk about his exit, claiming the club “launched a media campaign against” him and that Echevarría “went around talking to players like Sergi Roberto, Araújo, Pedri, and Raphinha, telling them that I wanted to sell them.”
The former midfielder said he wanted to make on change to the squad – not 10 that Laporta has previously claimed – and then went on to speak about how a deal to bring Messi home had been agreed.
“The president isn’t telling the truth there either. Leo was signed. In January 2023, after winning the World Cup, we got in touch, and he told me he was excited about coming back, and I saw it. We talked until March, and I told him, ‘Okay, when you give me the OK, I’ll tell the president because I see it as a good move from a footballing perspective.’ Then what happened? The president started negotiating the contract with Leo’s father, and we had LaLiga’s approval, but it was the president who threw everything out,” he explained.
“Laporta told me, and I quote, that if Leo came back, he was going to wage war against him and that he couldn’t allow it. And then suddenly Leo stopped answering my calls because he’d been told on the other end that it couldn’t be done.
“And when I called his father, I said, ‘This can’t be, Jorge,’ and he said, ‘Talk to the president.’ And I insisted that we’d been talking with Leo for five months, it was a done deal, there were no doubts about his footballing ability, and financially we were going to Montjuïc and we were going to do…A last dance like Jordan’s, all set up.”
Xavi was then asked about his future and added: “ I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Barça. I’ve already completed my time as a player and coach.”
