„Barcelona“ team was stunned by scandalous past actions.
The publication „El Periodico“ managed to obtain conversations of the Catalan team's top officials on the „WhatsApp“ app, in which former club executives spared no harsh epithets for the club's stars.
For example, in January 2021, when the media revealed the salary of then Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, one department head Roman Gomezas Ponti, suspecting the player of deceit, referred to him as a „sewer rat“ and a „hormonal dwarf“.
„Don't be so nice to Barto (Josep Maria Bartomeu) with this sewer rat. The club gave him everything, and Messi now dictates his demands in the areas of player transfers, sponsors, and contract extensions.
When things got tough during the pandemic, I received a message from him saying that there would be no plans to reduce his and Luis Suarez's wages, while supposedly Lionel had no complaints about other players”, R. Ponti complained.
The former head did not hold back his anger after Barcelona's gruesome 2:8 loss to Bayern Munich and even called defender Gerard Pique a child in jail.
In the conversations, he also urged to get rid of the „dead weight“ by letting go of players like Sergio Busquets, who supposedly have no market value and cannot be sold.
The main statements were supported by general manager Oscar Grau, and they were often not contradicted by Barcelona's president J. M. Bartomeu.