Lionel Messi’s brother has claimed that he won’t be returning to Barcelona unless club president Joan Laporta is removed.
Messi spent over two decades at the Nou Camp after starting in the academy before financial issues at the Spanish outfit forced him to leave as a free agent in the summer of 2021.
The forward, who recently starred for Argentina to win the World Cup, joined French giants Paris Saint-Germain during the summer.
Messi has been constantly linked with a Nou Camp return since his contract expired, but his brother Matias believes he won’t be joining unless Laporta can be removed from his role.
Speaking on his son’s Twitch channel, Matias said: ”I have a SPORT cutting that says “Messi should return to Barcelona” and I’ve put underneath it “Hahaha”. We are not going back to Barcelona, and if we do, we are going to have a good clearout, kicking-out, among others, Joan Laporta who is ungrateful after all that Messi did for Barcelona.
‘People [in Barcelona] did not support him. People should have gone out to do a march or something, let Laporta leave and Messi stay. The Catalans are traitors.’
Messi’s brother then made an extraordinary claim that Barcelona only became a globally recognised team because of the 35-year-old’s contributions at the club where he won 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies among his highlights.
‘Barcelona started to become globally recognized because of Messi, before that people only knew Madrid,’ he said.
