Barcelona President Joan Laporta On Messi Contract Talks, Rumored Neymar Return

Barcelona president Joan Laporta is among the many people who are still in disbelief that Lionel Messi will not be suiting up for them.

However, he admitted that keeping the six-time Balon d’Or winner would have been impossible despite club players agreeing to salary cuts and offloading Antoine Griezmann’s massive weekly wages of £594,000 ($821,466).

Laporta recently spoke with Esports3 about their rollercoaster of a summer.

"Messi could not have stayed even with Griezmann's [departure] and with the salary reduction of the captains. But it is important that we have lowered the salary cap because next year we can be more ambitious."

He continued, "I think we were both sad because the situation was not what we wanted. I have not spoken with Messi since. I saw his debut with PSG [Paris Saint-Germain] and it was strange to see him at another team, rivals. I did not like seeing him in another shirt."

There is hope for next year though, as Laporta has been leading the charge at cutting Barcelona’s expenditure costs and the 59-year-old is more than happy to announce that they have slashed their contract expenses from 110 percent to 80 percent.

"I want to congratulate the executives and the financial department of Barcelona for their work, and all those who have worked tirelessly and extraordinarily,” Laporta said.

"And we have some heroes in [Gerard] Pique, [Jordi] Alba, [Sergio] Busquets and we will seal [the deal with] Sergi Roberto,” he added. All of them have agreed to take wage cuts to help relieve the club of some of their debt that is valued at around €1.35 billion ($1.59 billion).

A familiar face to Barcelona fans was supposed to make a return to Camp Nou this summer but Laporta and the club’s misunderstanding of the La Liga fair play rules blocked it from happening, according to ESPN.

“We tried to sign Neymar,” Laporta told TV3. “At that moment [after being elected in March], it seemed like an interesting signing. He got in contact. He was crazy about coming. We interpreted fair play in another way at the time. If we had known all the rules [in LaLiga], we would not have made that offer."

Despite all of this, the Spanish giants have had a great start to their La Liga season, with two wins and one draw under their belt.

Their next game will see them face FC Bayern Munchen on Sept. 14 to kick off their UEFA Champions League bid.