Considered by many to be the greatest player of all time after Pelé, Argentina’s Lionel Messi He built a successful career over the years, however, the beginning of his trajectory had a peculiar episode. The athlete’s first professional contract with Barcelona was signed in an improvised way, in December 2000, on a napkin. And the object, which went to auction, has just been sold for the value of 965 thousand dollars (R$ 4.9 million).
The contract was written by Carles Rexach, who was Barcelona’s technical secretary at the time. On the day Messi signed the “document”, Horacio Gaggioli, the Argentine businessman who took the player to the Spanish city, and Josep Minguella, the Catalan team’s transfer advisor, were also present.
“In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000 and in the presence of Mr. Minguella and Mr. Horacio, Carles Rexach, technical secretary of FC Barcelona, undertakes under his responsibility and despite some opinions to the contrary, to sign the player Lionel Messi, provided that we maintain the agreed values,” reads the text written on the napkin.
Messi, then 12 years old, had had some tests to play for Barcelona, however, not everyone within the club was convinced that the young striker should be signed. That’s when Rexach decided to take action.
During a lunch with Gaggioli and Minguella, the Barca manager took a napkin, drafted the improvised contract and the piece of paper went down in history as the document that represented the first professional link between Messi and Barcelona.
See Messi’s photo gallery below:
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