Lionel Messi could have continued if Barcelona didn’t sign Aguero and Depay, claims Javier Tebas

With reports that Lionel Messi was set to stay, it saw Barcelona sign Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia on free-transfers before things became complicated. The move for the trio combined with the club’s incredible financial issues, meant that they couldn’t re-sign Messi to a new deal despite the fact that he had agreed to a major salary cut. It saw the Argentine eventually bring an end to a two-decade spell at the Camp Nou, signing for PSG in the process.

But there was a last-ditch attempt to get Messi to re-sign and Barcelona president Joan Laporta later confirmed that had the club signed the CVC Capital Partners deal, they could have kept the forward. However, that would have meant selling 10% of it’s future business to the venture capitalist group, something that most of the Spanish top flight have done. That was reiterated by Javier Tebas who also revealed that Barcelona could have kept Messi if they hadn’t signed three new players.

"I had dinner at Laporta's house and he agreed to sign the CVC agreement. I didn't know if Messi could renew because of that, but later I got a call [from Laporta]. 'Can we accelerate the CVC deal? The kid is getting nervous,' he said," Tebas said, reported ESPN. 

"I told him: 'The day it comes out, Florentino is going to try and burst it.' And Laporta told me: 'No, no, I have character.' Florentino's behind it all, I have no doubt. There was an agreement that if signed the CVC deal, they could have put 15% of the money towards signing players. In my opinion, they could have signed Messi. Laporta signed players like Memphis, Aguero... if he didn't sign those players, Messi could continue."