David Sánchez puts Gaspart “a thousand floors” below Messi in Barça history

David Sánchez took a sharp swipe at Joan Gaspart over Leo Messi: “Joan Gaspart is a thousand floors below Leo Messi in the history of Barcelona.” On his Picotazos segment on Radio MARCA, the journalist reacted to remarks by the former Barcelona president, who had said that “even Leo Messi is not above FC Barcelona”.

Sánchez’s criticism focused less on the underlying idea than on the way Gaspart had addressed the Argentine. “What is serious is not the substance of what Joan Gaspart says, which may or may not be right. What is serious is the tone Joan Gaspart uses when addressing Leo Messi,” he said.

Sánchez did not settle the debate about Messi’s place in relation to the institution. He admitted he was not “sure that Leo Messi is greater than FC Barcelona” and said each supporter could form their own view. “I don’t know whether Messi is on the institution’s level, below it or above it,” he concluded. But in his view, that debate does not justify Gaspart positioning himself as someone entitled to lecture the Argentine, particularly given the place each holds in the club’s recent memory.

The journalist also stressed that Messi had never publicly claimed a position above the club: “Leo Messi has not said it, has not asserted it and has not felt it.” Sánchez described the Argentine as the most influential player to have passed through the club and as a figure who changed the sporting scale of an entire era.

He also recalled Messi’s departure from Barcelona and the hurt left by that episode. “They kicked Messi out of Barcelona,” he said, before calling for “a minimum of affection” to rebuild bridges and make possible a tribute he considers overdue. Sánchez added that many supporters had repeated the label of worst president in Barça history, and that Gaspart himself had acknowledged it. His conclusion was that Gaspart is “nobody to tell Leo Messi that he is not above the club”.