{"id":46290,"date":"2026-03-30T19:12:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=46290"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:12:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:42:59","slug":"laporta-stands-firm-on-messi-exit-points-to-club-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/la-liga\/laporta-stands-firm-on-messi-exit-points-to-club-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Laporta Stands Firm on Messi Exit, Points to Club Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joan Laporta has once again addressed the controversial departure of Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona in 2021, stating that the decision was necessary for the club\u2019s long-term future.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking candidly, Laporta admitted the emotional weight behind letting Messi leave but maintained that it was the correct call. He stressed that the club was going through a severe financial crisis at the time and required urgent restructuring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to make a decision. I believe it was right,\u201d Laporta said. He pointed to Barcelona\u2019s financial recovery and improved squad structure as proof that the move was justified.<\/p>\n<p>Messi, widely regarded as the greatest player in the club\u2019s history, left Barcelona in 2021 after spending over two decades with the Spanish giants. His exit marked the end of an era and sparked widespread debate among fans and experts.<\/p>\n<p>Laporta highlighted that the club needed a generational shift. \u201cLeo was at the end of his career and we needed to build a new team,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joan Laporta has once again addressed the controversial departure of Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona in 2021, stating that the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":46291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4651],"tags":[681,661,3686,3196,1823,3648,2027,3789,487,239],"class_list":["post-46290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-liga","tag-barca","tag-barcelona","tag-david-ornstein","tag-exit","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-inter-miami","tag-joan-laporta","tag-laporta","tag-lionel-messi","tag-messi"],"reading_time":"1 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46292,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46290\/revisions\/46292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}