In December of 2000, history was made at a tennis club cafeteria when a group of soccer executives signed a napkin in blue ink. Written on the napkin was an informal agreement to sign Lionel Messi, then only 13 years old, to FC Barcelona.
Trained in the club’s youth academy and making his debut with the senior team at the age of 16, Messi would go on to become one of the most legendary players in football. Kept for a long time in the vault of a bank in Andorra, the towel that started it all will soon disappear. it will be open for auction when auction space Bonhams offers it in an online sale in March with a starting value of £300,000 ($380,000).
“In Barcelona, on 14 December 2000 and in the presence of Messrs. Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, director of FC Barcelona, undertook, in fulfilment of his obligations and regardless of divergent opinions, to sign the player Lionel Messi, provided that the agreed conditions are met. The amounts are respected,” reads the napkin written in the handwriting of Barcelona’s director, Carles Rexach.
As evidenced by Rexach’s mention of “dissenting opinions,” not everyone at FC Barcelona was eager to sign Messi. Born in Rosario, Argentina, the player had been flown out to Barcelona in 2000 for a try-out after being scouted while playing for Newell’s Old Boys, his local club. But despite the future soccer star’s evident talent, club executives were hesitant. Signing such a young player, especially one from a foreign country, was unusual. And the small stature of Messi, who had been diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency and would require expensive treatment, was further cause for concern.
With negotiations stalled, Messi and his father Jorge returned to Argentina and indicated they would look for other clubs. Rexach knew he had to act. While having lunch at Barcelona’s Pompeia Tennis Club with the club’s movement adviser, Josep Minguella, and Argentine agent Horacio Gaggioli, he temporarily scribbled on the promise of a contract, which he then signed through the three men.
“Why a towel? Because it’s the only thing I had on hand,” Rexach told ESPN in 2020. A formal agreement was drawn up that same day when he called FC Barcelona president Joan Gaspart to verify the contract.
The rest is history. Playing for Barca for two decades, Lionel Messi has become the club’s most level-headed goalscorer of all time. He helped the team win 35 titles, adding ten La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and three Club World Cups, a tenure that cemented his prestige as one of football’s all-time greats.
Attempts have been made to display the towel in the FC Barcelona Museum, without success, Minguella told Radio Catalunya (31 January). It will now be presented at Bonhams in Gaggioli’s name, in an online auction scheduled for March 18-27.
“Yes, it’s a paper towel, but it’s the famous napkin that marked the beginning of Lionel Messi’s career,” Ian Ehling, director of books and fine manuscripts at Bonhams New York, said in a statement. “It replaced Messi’s life. ” FC Barcelona’s long history helped bring some of football’s greatest moments to billions of enthusiasts around the world. “
We get it: you like to control your own web experience. But advertising revenue is helping to sustain our journalism. To read our full stories, turn off your ad blocker. We would appreciate it.
Below are the steps you can follow to upload Observer. com to your browser’s whitelist:
Click on the AdBlock button in your browser and Do Not Run on pages of this domain.
Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Enabled on this site.
Click on the AdBlock Plus button in your browser and Disable it in Observer. com.