Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta has reaffirmed his claim of turning down €250m from Inter Milan for Lionel Messi.
Laporta has added more detail to the world record offer from the Nerazzurri.
He revealed, “They offered 250m euros because I wasn’t budging from ‘Messi is not for sale’. In a private setting, with only four people, Moratti told me that he was very interested in signing [Messi] and that he was ready to make me a very big offer.
“This was in 2006 and we knew that Messi had to be the cornerstone of Barcelona in the years to follow. During my presidency, we had lots of offers for Messi and we always rejected them. We never wanted to give anything away in our stance with respect to Messi.
“Having him brought us many sporting successes but it also improved the financial situation of the club and left a sporting, economic and social legacy that I think is the best that has been left to a football club in history.”
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