Posted on November 18, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. by Dan Marciano
Supporting Joan Laporta during the last presidential campaign, José Elias does not regret the departure of Lionel Messi from PSG in August.
A huge thunderclap occurred on the market for transfers during the last summer. Present from a young age in Catalonia, Lionel Messi ended up leaving FC Barcelona. In great financial difficulty, the Blaugrana team did not manage to keep the Argentine star, who finally left for PSG . But as Barça has entered a new era with the arrival of Xavi, Joan Laporta did not close the door on the arrival of other alumni such as Andres Iniesta or Lionel Messi . “I'm not ruling it out. That's what happened with Dani, who once said age is just a number and also made a big financial effort. You talk about two spectacular players, Leo and Andrés. I can't predict the future, they are still playing. We will always keep them in mind, but at the moment they have contracts with other clubs. In life, you never know ”said the president of FC Barcelona this Wednesday during the presentation of Daniel Alves . But one of his relatives absolutely does not regret the departure of the Pulga.
“Messi was too old for Barça”
President of the company Audax and support of Joan Laporta during the last presidential campaign, José Elias spoke at length about the transfer of Lionel Messi to PSG . And according to him, the Catalan club made the right choice by parting with the Argentinian. “They had to create a new team and they couldn't with Messi in it. Messi was too old for Barça, ”he said. For him, FC Barcelona should even have separated from Lionel Messi during the summer of 2020, when the player wanted elsewhere. “What I said was that, as Culé, as José Elías, if we had let Messi go a year earlier, we would have made money. If we had taken 100 million euros, I would have been happy with that. Messi's end was in sight; if it wasn't last year it was this year, and making Barca a winning team means making a post-Messi project. You had to make a decision at some point. Messi is old enough not to be at Barca. And they say to me: 'What did you want him to retire here?' Well, no, ' José Elias confided during the Soltana program.
Barça would have released Messi also for sporting reasons
In a second step, the person in charge revealed the reasons which pushed the Catalan club to separate from Lionel Messi , and they are not only financial: “Three reasons prevented him from continuing: The salary organization of the club because we had to face salary cuts that were difficult to defend. Second, we didn't have the money to pay it and we were bridging it to pay it in installments, which they do there. (At PSG). And three, you have to generate a new team and a new illusion and with Messi you couldn't ”. José Elias also questioned the tears of Lionel Messi during his farewell to FC Barcelona. “It is the law of life . And it screwed me up the day Messi left. But I think people mistook the tears. Messi was not crying because he was not staying at Barça, he was crying because of several things, not because he was not staying at Barça (…) Messi was coming to the end of a cycle. And on top of that, he made his life in Barcelona and people have integrated ”concluded José Elias , who seems in opposition to Joan Laporta , eager, him , to find Lionel Messi .