- Messi's contract details with Barca were leaked by El Mundo on Sunday.
- Some suggest Josep Maria Bartomeu or Carles Tusques did the leak.
- Bartomeu's former vice-president Jordi Mestre suggests Real Madrid did it instead.
- He adds that Bartomeu's board convinced Leo to stay in 2015 despite the Argentine's desire to leave.
"Whenever Madrid goes bad, something controversial comes out against Barca and I don't believe in coincidences," former Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre said of Lionel Messi's contract leak in an interview with Cadena Cope.
Some suggest it was the club's ex-president Josep Maria Bartomeu or current interim president Carles Tusques who leaked the details of Leo' deal to the media in an attempt to force him out of Camp Nou.
"I don't think it was any candidate for the presidency," Mestre responded to the accusations. "The contracts were not even in our hands. They were at the club and in La Liga."
Mestre, who had been Barca's vice-president for the vast part of Bartomeu's reign at Camp Nou, also says that Messi wanted to quit the Blaugrana after winning the treble in 2015 but their board convinced him to stay.
“Messi wanted to leave in 2015 and we fought for him to stay,” Jordi concluded.
Considering Mestre's relationship with Bartomeu, this interview looks like Jordi's attempt to protect his former chief.