Barcelona is Lionel Messi's life club. The Argentine star has said so many times. Messi left Barca and is now in PSG. However, he definitely suffered from memory loss around the Catalan club. Maybe you feel the pull to go back constantly. However, Messi is not going to be happy after hearing the news published by the Barcelona city newspaper 'El Periodico'.
'El Periodico' leaked a WhatsApp group discussion between the board members at the time when Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014–2020) was president of Barca. Barca board members have spoken offensively and insultingly about some star players there.
Without Messi, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets were criticized. According to the Spanish newspaper 'Marca', the most critical of the leaked messages of the WhatsApp group was Roman Gomez Ponti, the head of Barca's legal department at the time.
In addition, the WhatsApp group included former Barca president Oscar Grau (then the club's chief executive), executives Jordi Moix, Oriel Toma and David Bellevue. Pancho Schröder, director of finance, and Javier Sobrino, director of innovation and strategy, were also involved in the discussion.
In that WhatsApp conversation, Ponti wrote to Bartomeu about Messi, 'Barto, you can't be that nice to that sewer rat (Messi). The club has given him everything, and he is establishing his own dictatorship by controlling signings, transfers, contract renewals, sponsors.'
This former member of the Barca board wrote more harsh language about Messi, 'The most important thing is that because of this hormonal dwarf (Messi), the club and those of us who work for the club have been victims of blackmail and disrespect. But his life was saved because of Barcelona. But when everything is at a standstill in the pandemic, you get that famous WhatsApp message, "President, you can cut the salaries of the rest, but don't touch Luis (Suarez) and me."
After joining Barca's age group in 2000, Messi got a chance in the first team in 2004. Messi won 35 titles for the Catalan club before leaving Barca in 2021. Won the Champions League 4 times, La Liga 10 times. Barca could not retain the 7-time Ballon d'Or winner due to La Liga's salary structure.
On the day that the Spanish media 'El Mundo' leaked the terms and conditions of Messi's contract at Barca, Bartomeu-Pontiera shared these words in a WhatsApp group. Spanish media 'Sport' reported that the day was January 31, 2021. And Bartomeu-Ponty suspected Barca's current president, Juan Laporta, behind the leak of Messi's contract.
According to 'El Periodico', Ponti criticized Gerard Pique following Barca's 8–2 Champions League quarter-final loss to Bayern Munich in August 2020. Ponti wrote in the WhatsApp group that PKK must be released to change everything at Barca.
And on Busquets, Ponti advised Bartomeu, 'For players who have no market and can't be sent away, hand them a little and forget that they have lasted so long at the club without any help.'