Lionel Messi Set to Become Owner of Eldense Football Club

Lionel Messi is preparing to swap the pitch for the boardroom in Spanish football – and not just as a symbolic figurehead.

According to Spanish daily Marca, the Argentine icon has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Eldense, a recently promoted Segunda División club based in Elda, in the province of Alicante. The deal, if finalised, would give Messi full ownership of the club’s shares, with no third-party partners involved.

This is not a one-off investment. It is the next step in a clear plan.

Earlier this year, Messi moved into Spanish football as a businessman by acquiring Cornellà, the Catalan third-division side. Now he is pushing deeper into the professional game with Eldense, a club that has just climbed into the second tier and sits geographically close to Catalonia – the region where he intends to settle once his playing days at Inter Miami are over.

At the heart of the project, those close to the talks describe a straightforward ambition: Messi wants to pour part of his legacy back into the sport itself. Not into glittering superclubs, but into modest institutions trying to grow in the shadow of the giants.

The timing is striking. While Messi continues to dominate headlines in MLS, the situation at Eldense is anything but serene. On the pitch, the team has stumbled badly at the start of the season, collecting only two points from their opening four league matches. Last Monday, the club dismissed coach Claudio Barragán, making him the first managerial casualty of the Segunda campaign. A replacement has yet to be named.

Off the pitch, the ownership story has already been turbulent. Eldense changed hands in October 2015, when an international investment group with Colombian roots, led by businessman Juan Carlos Trujillo, bought the club from Pascual Pérez. In recent months, rumours swirled around another potential buyer: Argentine Ricardo Beni, who was linked with a takeover valued at around 12 million euros.

Those whispers have now been drowned out by a far louder name. Messi’s.

The agreement with the World Cup winner is still in the final stretch. Completion is expected in the coming days, once legal and contractual details are settled and financial due diligence is signed off. The operation must also receive the green light from Spain’s National Sports Council before it becomes official.

If all approvals land as expected, Eldense will move from an international investment fund to the hands of one of the greatest players in football history, at a moment when the club is fighting to steady itself in the second division and searching for a new coach.

A struggling team, a fresh promotion, a vacant dugout – and Lionel Messi waiting in the wings as owner. If the deal goes through, Eldense’s next chapter will not lack for intrigue.