Lionel Messi's exit created quite a stir in the world of football, and fans needed some clarification on why the club decided to let the footballer leave. Today, team president Joan Laporta admitted that Messi's demands and the team's current financial situation forced them to part ways, even if there was an agreement to extend his deal at Camp Nou.
Speaking in a lengthy press conference, Laporta admitted that there was a moment during the negotiations where he had to decide what was more important: to keep Messi around, or to respect Barcelona's legacy. Eventually, he chose to honor the club.
"I am not willing to place a 50-year mortgage on Barcelona's accounts, because Barça will always be more important than everyone, even Messi, someone we will always be grateful. Re-signing Messi carried some risks that we were willing to assume, but we had to be cautious. Leo wanted to stay, we wanted him to stay, but we had to think with our heads and not with our hearts. I am sad, but I am happy because we think we did what's best for the club," Laporta said.
Laporta went on and admitted that Messi's legacy will endure forever, but reality forced both parties to understand they could not coexist right now.
"There's an era before Messi and one after him. He's left joy, success, and historic images behind. Our grattitude will be eternal. But I don't want to give false hopes about a U-turn in this situation, because our wage situation is really complicated. With him, we had a 110% ratio of wages for the first team. Now, without him, it went down to 95%," Laporta added.
Before the press conference concluded, Laporta hinted that there could be some issues in registering the team's four signings (Eric García, Sergio Agüero, Emerson Royal and Memphis Depay), but he remains confident that the adjustments they have made to the roster and their wages will pave the way to make them available to play.
"We hope there will not be any more problems of this sort. According to our calculations, they will be registered, because their wages are nowhere near what Messi earned," the president stated.
Before leaving the podium, Laporta stated that the team and coach Ronald Koeman are aware of the situation and are looking forward to leave their mark in Barcelona's history despite all the turmoil that has surrounded the team in recent weeks.
