Exclusive: Why Bartomeu has a huge debt to Barça star Messi
Laporta tried to get Messi to back his campaign in 2015
The Argentine took the decision to remain completely neutral
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu should be eternally grateful to Leo Messi. If he's sat down negotiating the Argentine's new contract right now it's in large part thanks to the player himself.
Why? Well, to start with the obvious, Messi was a large part of the treble which Barça won in 2014-15, the second in the club's history. Don't forget that Bartomeu called elections in January of 2015 -- a brave call after a turbulent few weeks and a loss to Real Sociedad -- for the following summer.
Without the treble, the result of the elections would have been different.
But the huge debt Bartomeu has with Messi came during the electoral campaign. The fight to be Barça president came down to a battle between Bartomeu and Joan Laporta. The latter, seeing the polls were going against him, phoned Messi's people in a bid to get the Barça No.10 to back his candidacy to give him the boost he needed.
Messi appreciated the call, but opted not to get involved in the campaign and remain neutral. At that time he was on holiday, too, trying to move on from the Copa America defeat to Chile. If he'd have backed Laporta, he would have had a good shot at winning.
In the end, Bartomeu beat Laporta by 10,000 votes. He got 25,823 to the 15,615 of his opponent.
