Former FC Barcelona coach
In an interview with La Vanguardia, Xavi explained that the return He was very close to the Argentine star when he was coach of the first team and that they even had direct conversations for several months after the World Cup in Qatar. “Laporta is not telling the truth. He was about to come back with me as coach. He was signed. January 2023. I contacted him after becoming world champion and he told me that he was excited to return,” he said.
According to Xavi, the agreement was practically closed until the president backed down. “We talked until the month of March and I told him ‘when you give me the OK, I’ll tell the president’. We had the green light from LaLiga, but Laporta threw everything back. He told me verbatim that if Messi returned he was going to wage war on him and that he couldn’t allow it,” he said.
The former midfielder and former ‘culer’ coach, who was a teammate of the Argentine, also explained that he tried to contact Messi to understand what happened. “I tried to talk to Leo and he didn’t pick up the phone.. I spoke to the father and told him that I didn’t understand anything and he told me: ‘Talk to the president.’ “Everything was done, it was going to be his ‘last dance’, like Michael Jordan, everything was prepared,” he said.
“Leo doesn’t come to Barça because the president doesn’t want to”
In this sense, Xavi maintained that the Argentine’s return was not frustrated for economic or regulatory reasons, as was pointed out. “My interest is to tell the truth and Leo does not come to Barça because the president does not want to, not because of LaLiga nor because Jorge Messi asks for more moneythat’s a lie. “It is the president and his people who tell him no, that he cannot allow it, that he has all the power and that Messi is going to mismanage that power,” he said.
Furthermore, the Terrassa coach was critical of the way in which his departure from the Blaugrana bench took place and pointed out Alejandro Echevarría, Laporta’s former brother-in-law and the former president’s trusted person in football matters despite not having a position at the club, as a determining figure within the club.
“Get rid of me as a coach without telling me the truthconditioned by a person who I believe is above the president, who is Alejandro Echevarría. That is to say, the one who dispenses with me as coach is Alejandro,” he stated.
He also referred to the sports director, Deco, whom he said he has respect for but that his margin of decision is limited. “I respect him, but he is tied up by Echevarría, who is the one who really decides,” he said.
Xavi, “hurt” with Laporta
Xavi also admitted feeling hurt by some recent statements by former president Laporta about his time at the head of the team. “I have been holding on, but the president is saying that I wanted ten dismissals and it is not true. What I want is for the member to understand that this is happening within Barça and, with my hand on my heart, that the club needs a change from top to bottomof structure, professionalism…”, lamented Xavi, who has given his public support to the candidate Víctor Font.
Despite everything, the coach claimed the legacy of his time on the bench and the foundations that, in his opinion, he left for the current project. “We laid a very good for this project to have continuity. The backbone of the team is made up of Lamine, Pedri, Balde, Cubarsí, Fermín… People we bet on. It is one of the legacies of which I feel most proud, beyond the two titles we won,” he explained.
Along the same lines, he highlighted the relationship he maintained with the locker room during his time as coach. “We were a family in the locker room, I have always stood up to the footballers. Now you see Fermín, Lamine, who for me is already the best in the worldto Raphinha, who we changed position so that he could attack the depth…”, he commented.
However, Xavi also acknowledged mistakes during his time at the head of the team. “Of course we did things wrong, we have done a lot of self-criticism, me personally and then with the staff through meetings. To make a short summary I would say that my demands regarding the club went from more to less. While we had the upper hand the team was going up; to what they began to decide, the team, and not by chance, went down,” he concluded.
