In case you needed further proof of the ‘Lionel Messi Effect’s’ existence: a plain white restaurant napkin, that outlined the agreement between football’s current GOAT and his longtime club FC Barcelona, has just been sold through an online auction… for £762,400 (AU$1.44 million).
Dated December 14, 2000 — when young Leo was just 13 years old — it states that FC Barcelona Carles Rexach director, “Hereby agrees, under his responsibility and regardless of any dissenting opinions, to sign the player Lionel Messi, provided that we keep to the amounts agreed upon” (translated text). The “dissenting opinions,” of course, involved his undersized stature, which was eventually remedied by hormone therapy.
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That night, after the prodigious talent from Rosario, his father-agent Jorge, and Mr Rexach departed from Pompeia Tennis Club, FC Barcelona President Joan Gaspart formally honoured the handshake/napkin agreement with a more orthodox paper contract; forever altering the course of sporting history.
“Yes, it’s a paper napkin, but it’s the famous napkin that was at the inception of Lionel Messi’s career,” explains Ian Ehling, Bonhams New York’s Head of Fine Books & Manuscripts, via statement.
“It changed the life of Messi, the future of FC Barcelona, and was instrumental in giving some of the most glorious moments of football to billions of fans around the globe.”
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Lionel Messi would spend the vast majority of his professional career at FC Barcelona, scoring a whopping total of 672 goals for the Catalonia-based side and bringing home a club-record 34 trophies in the process: 10 La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, as well as the UEFA Champions League four times — all because of an unassuming restaurant napkin.
Of course, Leo’s achievements haven’t exactly been restricted to his tenure at Barca, which only came to a tearful end in 2021. The record eight-time Ballon d’Or recipient, six-time European Golden Shoes winner, and eight-time FIFA World’s Best Players seemingly “completed” football at the 2022 FIFA World Cup (Qatar); and has since made a splash in America’s Major League Soccer with David Beckham’s Inter Miami.
