Lionel Messi’s brother, Matias, has apologised for his comments about Barcelona in a recent Instagram post. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner’s brother criticised the club, and said that they were unknown before the success of the Argentine.
He also criticised Joan Laporta for his running of the club, and called for the president to be kicked out if they were ever to return to Catalonia.
Lionel Messi’s brother backtracks on vicious comments about Barcelona
“I have a SPORT cutting that says “Lionel Messi should return to Barcelona” and I’ve put underneath it “Hahaha”. We are not going back to Barcelona, and if we do, we are going to have a good clearout, kicking-out, among others, Joan Laporta who is ungrateful after all that Messi did for Barcelona,”
“People (in Barcelona) did not support him. People should have gone out to do a march or something, let Laporta leave and Messi stay. The Spanish are traitors. I tell you because I want it to come out of our guts and not listen to things that are not true,” he added.
“I don’t know about you, but Barcelona became known thanks to Messi. Nobody knew about them before. Whoever’s had the chance to go to Barcelona and see the museum, you can see that the museum is Messi.”
“I want to apologise for what I said on social networks: I was just making jokes with my son and my friends. How am I going to think that of a club as big as Barcelona and their history, which has given a lot both to my family and Leo? For us, Catalonia is our second home and that is well known. I’m very sorry and I apologise to everyone, especially the Barcelona fans,” Matias later wrote on Instagram.
