The scene takes place at the end of 2000, 10 days before Christmas in the clubhouse of the Montjuïc tennis club in Barcelona. A teenager is accompanied by his father. The kid is Argentinian and ready to join the Catalan club, FC Barcelona. His name is Lionel Messi. Everyone agrees: the little player, his father and the club representative Charly Rexach, sports director of the Blaugrana club.
All you have to do is sign to prevent the person who is already said to have the greatest good from changing his mind and looking elsewhere. But sign on what? Charly Rexach didn’t think he would go so quickly and he didn’t take a contract. You still need a written record. A piece of napkin will do the trick. This is where one of the greatest stories in sport began. According to the Argentinian daily The vanguardthe towel will go on sale between March 18 and 27 in London.
According to initial estimates, it should not be sold for less than 350,000 euros and the auction could rise to €600,000. According to La Vanguardia, the object belongs to Horacio Gaggioli, Messi’s former agent present at the meeting on December 14, 2000.
“I have never seen such an exciting object. Yes, it’s a paper napkin, but it’s the famous napkin that marked the start of Lionel Messi’s career. She changed Messi’s life, the future of FC Barcelona and contributed significantly to creating some of football’s most glorious moments for billions of fans around the world,” commented Ian Ehling, Director at from the Bonhams auction house.
