Lionel Messi's Move into Football Ownership with Eldense

Lionel Messi is preparing to swap the pitch for the boardroom in Spain – and not just as a 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 would see Messi acquire 100% of the shares, with no third-party partners involved.

If completed, it would mark his formal entry into Spanish professional football ownership and deepen a project he has already started. Earlier this year, Messi moved into the Spanish game by purchasing Cornellà, a Catalan third-division side. Eldense would be the next step up: a club in the second tier, in a region not far from Catalonia, where Messi intends to settle once his playing days at Inter Miami are over.

This is not a vanity play. Those close to the project frame it as a clear intention: to reinvest his football legacy back into the sport itself, using clubs with room to grow rather than ready-made giants.

A club in flux, on and off the pitch

Eldense are no strangers to change. The club last changed hands in October 2015, when an international investment group with Colombian roots, led by businessman Juan Carlos Trujillo, took over from Pascual Pérez.

In recent months, rumours linked Argentine businessman Ricardo Beni with a potential buyout worth around 12 million euros. That story never fully materialised. Now Messi’s name has surged to the forefront of the takeover talk and, this time, the momentum feels very different.

While the boardroom prepares for a possible seismic shift, the situation on the pitch is bleak. Eldense dismissed coach Claudio Barragán last Monday, making him the first managerial casualty of the Segunda División season. The team has collected just two points from their opening four league matches and currently has no permanent replacement in the dugout.

A struggling squad. A vacant technical area. A club in transition. It is exactly the kind of landscape where a strong new owner can reshape the entire direction.

Final hurdles before a new era

For now, the agreement remains preliminary. Lawyers and accountants are doing the last of the heavy lifting: final legal documentation, contractual fine print, and the all-important financial due diligence.

One more gate stands in Messi’s way – the Spanish National Sports Council, which must sign off on the takeover before it becomes official. Completion is expected within the next few days if all checks are cleared.

If the green light arrives, Eldense will not only gain one of the greatest players in history as their owner. They will become the centrepiece of Messi’s growing Spanish football portfolio, a project that could define his post-playing career as much as his left foot once defined matches.