A legendary napkin that became Lionel Messi‘s first ‘contract’ at Barcelona will be auctioned to the public next March. The price is no joke, opening at 300 thousand pounds or around 6 billion Rupiah.
Summarized by ESPN, the ‘contract’ was written on December 14 2000 at a tennis club by Barcelona’s Sports Director at the time, Charles Rexach in order to calm the heart of Jorge Messi, Leo’s father. At that time, he doubted Barcelona’s commitment to recruiting his son.
Jorge has even threatened to take Messi, who is still 13 years old, back to Argentina. But Rexach didn’t lose his mind. With all the existing limitations, especially when the conversation was conducted via telephone, he found a way to convince Jorge.
At that time, Rexach was with Josep Minguella and Horacio Gaggioli. The first name is the advisor who helped land Messi at Barcelona, while the second name is an agent from Argentina who brokered the deal.
“Why a napkin? Because that’s all I had in my hand. I saw the only way to calm Jorge down was to sign something, give him proof, so I asked the waiter for a napkin,” Rexach recalled in 2020.
“I wrote: ‘In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000 and in the presence of Messrs. Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, sporting director of FC Barcelona, hereby agreed, under his responsibility and despite differences of opinion, to sign Lionel Messi, provided that we remain meet the agreed amount.'”
Messi Is A Goat
“I told Jorge that my signature is there and there are witnesses, with my name, I will take direct responsibility, there is nothing more to discuss and please be patient for a few days because Leo can already consider himself a Barca player.”
The napkin is of course not an actual contract, but a promise to Jorge Messi that his son will be recruited. This legendary object is now kept neatly in a safe in Andorra by Gaggioli.
The napkin was originally intended to be stored in the Barcelona museum at Camp Nou, but past negotiations failed to reach an agreement. Finally the napkin was auctioned to the public by Bonhams auction house.
“This is one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever worked on,” said Ian Ehling of Bonhams New York.
“Yes, it was just a paper napkin, but it was a famous napkin from the start of Messi’s career. It changed Messi’s life, Barca’s future and was instrumental in delivering some of football’s most glorious moments to billions of fans around the world.”