Xavi Hernández says Joan Laporta halted Lionel Messi’s Barcelona return

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·9 March 2026

"Leo was signed," said Xavi Hernández. "We were going to do a last dance like Jordan's." He told La Vanguardia.

"I had been speaking to Leo for five months, football-wise there were no doubts, economically we were going to Montjuïc, everything was prepared."

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"Laporta told me, word for word, that if Leo came back, there would be a war and he could not allow it."

"Then, suddenly, Leo stopped picking up the phone because on the other side he had been told it could not be done."

"I called his father and said, 'it cannot be, Jorge', and he told me, 'speak to the president'."

Source: Superdeporte