Unusual as it may seem, the British auction firm ‘Bonhams’ announced that the napkin on which Messi’s contract was signed in 2000, will be up for auction.
Bonhams will put the napkin up for auction from March 18-27.
The starting price for this auction will be 300,000 pounds (USD 381,000).
Football great Lionel Messi was 13 years old when he signed the napkin. When his father, Jorge Messi, doubted Barcelona’s dedication to his son in 2000, Carles Rexach, the Barcelona team’s director of football at the time, scrawled a quick agreement on a napkin.
At a luncheon that Rexach arranged for Messi’s father, the napkin was signed. The family was concerned about Barcelona’s lack of communication following the teenager’s first trial.
Rexach, football agents Minguella and Gaggioli, and others signed the napkin, which was important in securing Messi’s commitment to Barcelona.
“In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000, and in the presence of Messr Minguella and Horacio, Carles Rexach, FC Barcelona’s sporting director, hereby agrees, under his responsibility and regardless of any dissenting opinions, to sign the player Lionel Messi, provided that we keep to the amounts agreed upon,” read the
agreement on the napkin, according to Reuters.
He made his Catalan club debut when he was 16-years old, and in 778 matches, he scored 672 goals.
Messi, aged 36, won ten La Liga titles and four Champions League championships with Barcelona before joining Paris St. Germain in 2021.
The 36-year-old football great currently plays for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.