Laporta certain Messi will remain after leading Barca to Cup glory
Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he was very confident Lionel Messi would want to stay at the club following the Argentine delivered an antique performance in Saturday's 4-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final.
Messi scored a sensational individual goal midway through the second half after strikes from Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong had put the Catalans in control.
He then adorned a superb display by netting again before lifting the trophy for the seventh time in his career, his first since becoming club captain in 2018.
Barca's all-time top scorer & most decorated player has only 8 weeks left on his contract and tried to leave this past year after falling out with then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
But Laporta, who presided over Messi's rise to stardom in his first stint as Barca chief and was elected for another time last month, said he felt the captain would stay at the club where he has spent his career since joining aged 13.
"Leo is the better player on earth and has a quite strong bond with the club. I'm convinced he wants to stay and we'll do everything inside our hands to make certain he does," Laporta told reporters.
"Today he could see he's backed up by a great team who are capable of playing beautiful football."
Messi gave no hints about his future but commended his side for overcoming an awful learn to their season to go and win the Copa and rejoin an exciting three-way race for the La Liga title alongside leaders Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
"We struggled to get going in the first half of the season and lost a lot of points by being naive but then we got a lot stronger, started playing effectively and got ourselves back into the fight," he said.
Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman paid tribute to Messi and in addition gave a particular mention to Dutch midfielder De Jong, who got two assists furthermore to scoring the next goal.
"Leo has spent years demonstrating that he's the best player on the globe and he was very effective today although we ought to also highlight what Frenkie did and also the rest of the team," he added.
"We played at a fantastic level tonight and we deserve this Cup."
Source: www.thedailystar.net
