Former Barcelona VP claims Messi and his family are ‘very angry’ with Joan Laporta | OneFootball

Speaking in an interview with Sport360 (h/t Mundo Deportivo), former Barcelona sports vice-president, Jordi Mestre, has opened up on the departures of club icons Lionel Messi and Neymar, pointing fingers at Joan Laporta.

This comes after recent comments made by the current Barcelona president about organising a tribute for Messi, who left the club in shocking circumstances back in the summer of 2021.

Mestre on Messi

According to Mestre, who was the sports VP at Barça during the Josep Maria Bartomeu administration, whatever the club does as a tribute to him will not be enough for everything he did for the Blaugrana.

“Whatever we do for him will be too little. What he’s given us is impressive. Not just on a sporting level, but also on a financial level: the tours with Leo Messi were one thing, and the tours without Messi were another,” he said.

“It’s true that he earned a very good salary, but he earned it, and he also made the club a lot of money. There were players who came to Barça because they wanted to play with Messi , world-class stars who wanted to come because Leo was there.”

Not stopping there, Mestre went on to add that Messi and his family are furious with Laporta over the manner of the former captain’s exit in 2021.

“I know, from third parties, that Leo Messi and his family are very, very angry with Laporta. Very angry. What he said about the barbecue… we’ve seen it before,” he said.

Relationship between Laporta and Messi’s camp not good. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

On how Barcelona can pay tribute to the icon, he added: “Now, I don’t know what they have in mind, but I think whatever we do for Messi will be too little. I would do something historic for him.

“I’m not even saying a statue, but I don’t know… the Leo Messi stand, for example. Let the name Leo Messi be passed down from generation to generation.”

On Neymar’s exit in 2017

Mestre also shed light on the departure of Neymar from Barcelona back in 2017, when he joined PSG for a world-record transfer fee of €222 million.

“I feel really bad that Neymar didn’t work out, because he was an extraordinary player. Theoretically, he had to be, within our plans, a bit of Leo’s heir. And Leo wanted him back, he told me: ‘I want Neymar back,'” revealed Mestre.

“And I understand, because he was doing very well, one-on-one, if Leo had to do everything, it was one thing, but if Leo and Neymar did it, things changed.”

Regarding his statements where he claimed Neymar would be ‘200% staying’ at Barça before his departure, Mestre explained:

“At that time, not even the players knew he was leaving. I spoke to a very important player in the team and he told me that they had been at Leo Messi’s wedding at the table with Neymar and that he never told his teammates he was leaving.

“That’s why I said I was 200 percent sure.”

Later on, Mestre tried to insinuate that Laporta may have had a hand in Neymar’s exit, given his friendship with superagent Pini Zahavi, who was critical to the Brazilian’s transfer to PSG.

“Later, over time, I put the pieces together and related how the whole issue of his departure worked, with Pini Zahavi involved. And we already know who Pini Zahavi is a good friend of, and that’s as far as I can go,” he said.

Continuing, Mestre added: “We won a lawsuit against the Neymars, for 16 million, and Laporta went to Israel to speak with Pini Zahavi, and it was forgiven, even though we (Barça) won in the second instance.”