The napkin on which Lionel Messi's first contract with Barcelona was settled in December 2000 will be auctioned in March. According to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia, the paper in which the signatures of Carles Rexach (then technical secretary of the club), the intermediary Horacio Gaggioli and Josep Maria Minguella (advisor to the president, Joan Gasprt) stand out, will be auctioned by the house British Bonhams between March 18 and 27. Its initial price will be 300 thousand pounds (350 thousand euros), according to the Catalan newspaper.
According to La Vanguardia, the signed paper “remained stored in a safe” in the possession of Gaggioli, who was the one who offered it to the auction house. The newspaper also says that at the time Barcelona tried to have the napkin go to the club museum, but did not reach an agreement with the mediator. “The club must now bid like any other person or organization to keep her,” says the Catalan newspaper.
The legendary napkin has a text in Rexach's handwriting. In blue ink, it reads: “In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000 and in the presence of Messrs. Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, technical secretary of FC Barcelona, undertakes under his responsibility and despite some contrary opinions to sign the player Lionel Messi as long as when we remain within the agreed quantities.”
The report from the Catalan newspaper also investigates the reasons that led Barcelona to choose such a peculiar way to “tie up” who would be one of the best footballers – if not the best – in its entire history.
“The reason for such a unique way of closing this kind of promise of a contract between the parties is part of the Barcelona legend, not fictional but real. Messi, only 13 years old and very small, had crossed the Atlantic to continue his growth treatment and was captured by a Barcelona collaborator, who was captivated watching him in action on video playing with Newell's Old Boys,” the newspaper recalls.
They are going to auction Messi's first contract.
The famous napkin where Lionel sealed his bond with Barça is going to be auctioned for around 500,000 euros. The club will be able to participate.
The owner is Horacio Gaggioli, who was Messi's representative. pic.twitter.com/Jq37GBObTQ
— Valentín Torres Erwerle ✍️🎙️ (@TorresErwerle) January 31, 2024
Why did Messi sign his contract on a napkin?
A little context: Rexach had to make a decision to sign Messi at the Pompeia Tennis Club. It was December 14, 2000, a date that was eternalized on the napkin. Gaggioli, one of the signatories, was one of the representatives of the very young Messi at that time. And he was the one who kept the document.
“I think it should be there, in a preferential place next to Messi's Ballon d'Or, since that piece of paper is what changed the contemporary history of the club,” Gaggioli said in an interview with Infobae years ago. Maybe he was looking for an agreement with the Blaugrana club.
La Vanguardia remembers that “Messi's first months in Barcelona were not easy at all.” And that even the negotiations to close his signing in the La Masía youth teams “stalled because some members of the board of directors were reluctant to see Messi as an elite footballer, especially due to his short stature.” The rest is history: Rexach decided on his own and after having seen him in action during some training sessions. Once they gave him the paper, he wrote the commitment between the Messis and the club.
“I then organized a meeting with him and Gaggioli – he acted as a representative of the Messi family – at a well-known tennis club in Barcelona, chaired by Josep María Minguella, also an agent and with whom I have a great relationship,” Rexach himself said in a note with The Coaches' Voice. And he added: “There, in the middle of the talk, I asked a waiter for a piece of paper, and on a napkin I wrote the text.”
Rexach continued: “We knew that this paper was worthless, that it had no legal value, but it did strongly show my commitment, as technical secretary of Barcelona, in that we signed it. In a way, it was a relief for me too. Messi's situation was not easy, but at least with that role it was forever clear that, if Messi ended up triumphing elsewhere, I had not been the fool who had let him escape.”
The rest is history: Messi won a World Cup with the Argentina shirt (Qatar 2022), won the Finalissima against Italy, the last Copa América played in Brazil, in addition to eight Ballon d'Ors, four Champions Leagues and 10 Spanish leagues with Barcelona. With the Blaugrana shirt, La Pulga became the top scorer in its entire history. And the first example of the relationship between the man from Rosario and his (almost) lifelong club is a square of paper measuring 16.5 centimeters on a side. Hours after that first understanding at the tennis club, president Joan Gaspart would draft the first official contract.
The Argentine national team is the world champion and its great figure, without a doubt, is the 'Flea'.
The head of Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams in New York, Ian Ehling, said that the napkin “is one of the most exciting objects” he has handled. Quoted by La Vanguardia, he added: “Yes, it is a paper napkin, but it is the famous napkin that was at the beginning of Lionel Messi's career. “He changed Messi's life, the future of FC Barcelona and contributed significantly to creating some of football's most glorious moments, for billions of fans around the world.”
The Nation (Argentina)
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