LONDON.- The napkin on which the agreement was signed by which a then very young Lionel Messi signed for him FC Barcelona It will go up for auction in mid-March with an initial price of 300,000 pounds (about $382,000), the British house Bonhams confirmed to AFP.
“The original napkin with blue ink, offered to Bonhams by Argentine agent Horacio Gaggiogli, will be put up for online auction from March 18 to 27 with a starting price of £300,000,” the company wrote in a statement transmitted to AFP.
“One of the most important documents in the history of football is the famous and unique napkin on which the contract promise to sign a 13-year-old Lionel Messi for Barcelona was written,” added the auction house.
This document “changed the fortunes of both the club and Messi, who became one of the best footballers of all time,” he insisted.
The napkin was signed at that time by Carles Rexach, then technical secretary of Barça, and the agents Josep Maria Minguella and Horacio Gaggiogli.
“In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000 and in the presence of Messrs. Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, technical secretary of FC Barcelona, undertakes under his responsibility and despite some contrary opinions to sign the player Lionel Messi as long as when we stay within the agreed quantities,” says the text written on the napkin.
Relic, thanks to Messi:
“This is one of the most exciting objects I have ever held in my hands. Yes, it is a paper napkin, but it is the famous napkin that gave rise to Lionel Messi’s career. It changed Messi’s life, the future of FC Barcelona and was instrumental in subsequently bringing some of football’s most glorious moments to thousands of fans around the world,” explained Ian Ehling, head of Bonhams.
After leaving his native Rosario, Messi played in the FC Barcelona first team from 2004 to 2021, scoring 672 goals with the Barça shirt, the record for a player in a club, becoming one of the best players in the history of football. with 44 titles won in his career and eight Ballon d’Ors.
Source: AFP
