{"id":27290,"date":"2025-11-13T12:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=27290"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:04:03","slug":"messi-return-unrealistic-says-barca-president-laporta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=27290","title":{"rendered":"Messi return ‘unrealistic’, says Barca president Laporta"},"content":{"rendered":"
Barcelona all-time great Lionel Messi returning to the Catalan giants is “unrealistic”, the club’s president Joan Laporta said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Argentine superstar made a surprise appearance at Barca’s Camp Nou stadium on Sunday night and said he hoped “one day I can return, and not just to say goodbye as a player, as I never got to do”.<\/p>\n

Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi, Barca’s record goalscorer and appearance maker, left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 after two decades there because their precarious financial position meant they could not afford to keep him.<\/p>\n

“Out of the utmost respect for Messi, the professionals at the club, Barca, and the Barca club members, I believe that now, for me to make speculation that is unrealistic, nor do I think is fair, well, I believe that is not appropriate,” Laporta told Catalunya Radio.<\/p>\n

The president, who was in charge at the time of Messi’s departure, said he did not regret what happened because “Barca is above everything”.<\/p>\n

Laporta confirmed he would love to hold a match in homage to Messi’s career at the rebuilt Camp Nou, once it is fully open.<\/p>\n

“Things didn’t end the way we would have liked… if, in some way, this tribute can make up for what wasn’t done, I think it would be a good thing,” explained Laporta.<\/p>\n

“It would be right that he has the best tribute (match) in the world, and it would be wonderful to have it here, in front of 105,000 fans,” he continued.<\/p>\n

The president said Inter Miami forward Messi’s surprise visit to the stadium on Sunday was a “spontaneous” display of his love of the club.<\/p>\n

Messi is currently in Spain with the Argentina national team, where they are training before a friendly against Angola.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barcelona all-time great Lionel Messi returning to the Catalan giants is “unrealistic”, the club’s president Joan Laporta said Wednesday. The 38-year-old Argentine superstar made a surprise appearance at Barca’s Camp Nou stadium on Sunday night and said he hoped “one day I can return, and not just to say goodbye as a player, as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}