Lionel Messi's brother savagely calls out Joan Laporta, says Barcelona are more relevant because of PSG star

The brother of Paris Saint-Germain superstar Lionel Messi has ruthlessly slammed Joan Laporta and called for the Barcelona president to be ‘kicked out.’

Messi spent the majority of his playing career at Barcelona before his exit in 2021 due to La Liga’s financial fair play rules preventing him from signing a new deal.

The 35-year-old Argentine forward, who is Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer and holds the record for most appearances, went on to sign for PSG on a free transfer.

Laporta has refused to rule out the idea of Messi making a return to the Camp Nou in the future, with the PSG star’s current deal set to expire in the summer.

However, the Barcelona chief admitted a transfer for the Argentina captain would be hard to achieve due to the club’s financial struggles and La Liga’s regulations.

Messi has a little sister, Maria Sol, and brothers Rodrigo and Matias, with the latter launching a scathing attack on Laporta (watch it in the video player above).

According to Football Espana, Matias appeared on a Twitch stream along with Messi’s nephew Tomi and revealed his desire to see Laporta ejected from Barcelona.

“I have a Sport [Spanish newspaper] clipping stuck in my house that says, ‘Messi should return to Barcelona,’ and I subtitled it, ‘Hahahaha [sic], we are not going back to Barcelona, and if we do, we are going to do a good cleaning. Among them, kick out Joan Laporta,’” he said.

“People [in Barcelona] did not support him. People should have gone out to do a march or something, let Laporta leave and Messi stay.

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“The Spanish are traitors. I tell you because I want it to come out of our guts and not listen to things that are not true.”

Laporta returned to Barcelona for his second spell as club president after beating Victor Font and Toni Freixa in the La Liga side’s 2021 elections.

The 60-year-old Spaniard succeeded Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had a public falling out with Messi, as Barcelona president after his predecessor resigned in 2020.

Speaking on the live stream, Messi’s brother also claimed that Barcelona’s increased popularity should be accredited to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner’s impact.

“[I think] Barcelona became known thanks to Messi. Nobody knew about them before,” he said.

“Whoever’s had the chance to go to Barcelona and see the museum, you can see that the museum is Messi.”

Topics: Lionel Messi, Barcelona, La Liga, Spain, Football, Joan Laporta

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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