Speaking on Sunday night, Xavi explained that after the 2022 World Cup, he contacted Messi and the two spoke for several months about his return to the club. He insisted that the then PSG player was eager to come back and that the talks continued until March 2023.
In his account, the former coach maintained that there was even a "green light from LaLiga" while the club was negotiating the contract with Jorge Messi, the player's father and agent. However, he directly pointed to the then-president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, as the person who halted the deal when it was already well underway.
In response, Tebas said: "That's not true. That's not true. First, we would have had to know what Messi wanted to earn to comply with Barça's Financial Fair Play regulations, which was complicated at that time.
"Since he's a player with a very high market value, it presented many complications. Nobody from Barça asked, nobody."