Messi’s Barcelona-signing napkin up for auction
The piece of sporting memorabilia linked with Lionel Messi will be auctioned by the prestigious house of Bonhams between March 18 and 27.
It could have been an ordinary day, but it wasn’t. On 14 December 2000, one of those work meetings that will be remembered forever took place. Specifically, the one experienced by Carles Rexach, Josep Maria Minguella, and Horacio Gaggioli at the Club de Tennis Pompeia. The reason: for Horacio, then the agent of a young Lionel Messi, to bring the Argentine footballer to FC Barcelona.
There was no contract at that time. Messi was 13 years old, and everything was framed on a napkin that could well be displayed in the museum of the Blaugrana club, as it ended up making history. The napkin was signed by all present at the meeting and marked the beginning of a remarkable story starring Messi and Barça.
20 years ago today, a 13-year-old Leo Messi arrived in Barcelona.
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 17, 2020
Some feared he was too small and too expensive.
He signed his first contract on a paper napkin, and then proved them all wrong 🐐 @brfootball pic.twitter.com/JqoOX1SWyY
$380k for Messi’s signing napkin
With an initial price of 350,000 euros (c.$378,000), almost 24 years later, that napkin is making headlines again. As reported by La Vanguardia, this item will be auctioned by the prestigious auction house Bonhams, between March 18 and 27. The napkin had been kept in a safe and was offered to the auction house on behalf of Horacio Gaggioli. It is a piece that was close to being exhibited in the Barça museum but ultimately did not materialize due to a lack of agreement between the parties.
Rexach: “I gave (Messi’s father) my word that we were going to sign his boy and as proof I’d sign a piece of paper. So I asked waiter and he brought me a napkin! So I wrote that, as the technical director of Barcelona, I was committed to signing Messi and I signed the napkin.” pic.twitter.com/PeljdBWEAa
— Barcastuff (@barcastuff__) March 14, 2018
On this artifact, you can read the following (translated) handwritten text in blue ink, after the intermediary asked the waiter for paper to seal the agreement.
“In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000, and in the presence of Messrs. Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, technical secretary of FC Barcelona, commits under his responsibility and despite some opposing opinions to sign the player Lionel Messi as long as we stick to the agreed-upon amounts.”
This piece, as described by Ian Ehling, the head of Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams in New York, “is one of the most exciting objects I have handled. Yes, it is a paper napkin, but it is the famous napkin that was at the beginning of Lionel Messi’s career. It changed Messi’s life, the future of FC Barcelona, and significantly contributed to creating some of the most glorious moments in football for billions of fans worldwide.”