Bonhams Opens Bidding for Famous Napkin that Launched Lionel Messi’s Barcelona Career
The famous napkin that served as the agreement for Lionel Messi’s transfer to Barcelona as a 13-year-old is up for auction this week with a guide price of £300,000-£500,000 ($374,700-$624,500). The bidding, currently standing at £220,000, will be open until May 17 with British auction house Bonhams.
Kosport Magazine’s Take:
As the most renowned and influential football player of his generation, Lionel Messi’s career at Barcelona began with a simple agreement scribbled on a napkin. This artifact is not just a piece of paper, but a symbol of the young Argentine’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the greatest footballers of all time.
The sale of this napkin was originally scheduled for March, but was postponed due to a dispute over its ownership. The auction will finally take place, giving fans a chance to own a piece of football history.
Interestingly, the napkin was signed on December 14, 2000, by Barcelona’s then-sporting director Carles Rexach, Josep Minguella, and Horacio Gaggioli, after receiving a frantic call from Messi’s father, Jorge. The rest, as they say, is history.
This simple agreement on a napkin has remained in the hands of Gaggioli, an Argentine agent, and has caused disputes between him and Minguella over the years. However, with Messi’s father threatening to take his son back to Argentina, Rexach took matters into his own hands and hastily drafted the agreement on a napkin.
The document, now property of Gaggioli, has been kept secure in a vault in Andorra, but negotiations for it to be displayed in Barcelona’s museum have fallen through.
Lionel Messi went on to become Barcelona’s greatest player, winning countless trophies and breaking records along the way. His individual achievements and international success have solidified his place in football history.
As the bidding for the napkin continues, fans can only imagine the immense value and sentimentality this piece of paper will hold for the lucky bidder. Regardless of who wins, the legacy and legendary status of Lionel Messi will live on, with or without the napkin that started it all.
