3 min readMar 9, 2026 08:22 PM IST Former Barcelona player and coach Xavi Hernandez said that Lionel Messi‘s return to Camp Nou was almost a done deal in 2023 but the club’s president Joan Laporta had blocked the Argentinian’s transfer fearing a power struggle with the superstar. Messi would ultimately end up joining his current club Inter Miami in 2023 after his Paris Saint Germain tenure ended. “The president is lying about what happened with Messi. Leo was signed. In January of 2023, after he had won the World Cup, I spoke to him and he told me he was excited to learn. We spoke until March and I told him: ‘Once you give me the OK, I will tell the president because it works perfectly on a football level,” Xavi said to Spanish outlet La Vanguardia as per ESPN. “The president negotiated the contract with Leo’s dad and we had the green light from La Liga financially, but it’s the president who pulled out. He told me that if Messi came back, he …