Messi Buys Spanish Football Club: Which Teams He Owns and What Happens Next

Lionel Messi went from La Liga’s defining player to a La Liga club owner in the space of a single year. If you have seen the headlines and want to know which club he actually bought, what he paid, and whether any of it will change results on the pitch, this article lays it out.

It covers both Spanish clubs tied to Messi, the regulatory hurdles a deal like this has to clear, the spending rules that limit what any new owner can do in Spain, and the growing list of current and former players buying stakes in European clubs.

Written for fans, curious readers, and anyone trying to separate the confirmed facts from the noise around it.

Which Spanish football club did Messi buy?

There are two, and they sit at very different levels of the Spanish pyramid.

The first was UE Cornellà, a small Catalan club. Messi acquired a majority stake in the fifth-tier side in April, with Spain’s High Council for Sports later approving his purchase of 85.05% of the club. The club announced the takeover on 16 April 2026 and did not disclose financial terms.

The second, and by far the bigger one, is CD Eldense. The club confirmed that Messi had reached a preliminary agreement with its owners to acquire the shares held by Grupo TH Soluciones, which would make him the majority shareholder, with the transaction subject to remaining legal and contractual procedures, due diligence, and authorisation from the Spanish National Sports Council. Eldense did not disclose financial terms or a completion date.

That distinction matters. An agreement in principle is not a signed, approved takeover, and the Eldense deal was still working through those steps when it was announced. If completed, it would make Messi the owner of a professional Spanish club for the first time, since Cornellà sits well below the professional tiers.

What is CD Eldense and why did Messi target them?

Eldense are a modest club with a long history and almost no silverware to show for it.

Founded in 1921, the club returned to Spain’s second tier in 2023 after nearly 60 years away, were relegated in 2025, and won promotion straight back the following summer. In 104 years, Eldense have never played in La Liga.

The setting is small-town Spain. Elda is a town of just over 55,000 people, best known for its shoe factories and leather industry, and the local council has helped fund the football club for the past 12 years. Home matches are played at the Estadio Nuevo Pepico Amat, listed at 5,776 capacity. The club has roughly 3,500 season-ticket holders.

The timing was awkward. Eldense sat 20th in the Segunda División with two points from their opening four matches, and had dismissed manager Claudio Barragán after the poor start.

Why a struggling second-division club makes sense as an investment

Buying low in the Segunda is a calculated bet. A club one promotion away from La Liga has an enormous ceiling relative to its purchase price, and a global name attached to it changes the commercial maths immediately. Even before the transaction closed, the association with Messi had pulled a small Spanish club into the global football spotlight.

There is also geography. Elda sits in Alicante province, roughly a 320-mile drive from Barcelona, the city where Messi spent 16 years as a player and where reports suggest he intends to base himself after retiring.

How much did Messi pay for the Spanish club?

No official figure has been published for either purchase, which is normal for private club sales of this size.

Reports put the Eldense figure at around $12 million, with Elda’s mayor, Rubén Alfaro, confirming an agreement in principle and stating that Messi was pursuing the investment alone after earlier suggestions that Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol might be involved. Before Messi entered the picture, Argentine investor Ricardo Pini had reportedly proposed a bid of about €12 million for the club.

For context on the seller: Eldense had previously been bought by an international investment group headed by Colombian businessman Juan Carlos Trujillo, who acquired the club from Pascual Pérez in October 2025.

Why did Messi buy UE Cornellà first?

Cornellà was never about the first team. It was about the academy.

The Baix Llobregat club’s youth system has produced players including Jordi Alba, David Raya and André Onana, and Messi’s investment plan was built around preserving and expanding that reputation as a talent factory. Founded on 29 April 1951, Cornellà also has one genuinely famous night in its history: a 1-0 Copa del Rey win over Atlético Madrid in January 2021.The club’s official statement framed the deal around youth talent, pointing to its teams competing in top national and regional youth categories, and linked it to Messi’s other development projects such as the Messi Cup, first held in Miami in December 2025 with eight of the world’s leading under-16 sides.

Can Messi spend big money on Eldense players?

No, and this is the part most headlines skip.

Spain’s strict salary limit rules mean Messi cannot simply pour money into signings at Eldense. Each club submits a proposed spending limit to LaLiga’s Validation Body, which reviews the club’s financial information before approving or adjusting the figure. The calculation covers fixed and variable salaries, social security payments, collective bonuses, agent commissions and the annual amortisation of transfer fees. Because the limit is tied to audited operating revenue and the club’s financial position, a new owner cannot raise spending just by injecting outside money.

What an owner can do is grow the revenue that the limit is calculated from. Sponsorship, merchandise, matchday income, broadcast exposure and player trading all feed into it. That is a slower path than a transfer splurge, but it is the only legal one in Spain.

Can Messi own two Spanish clubs at the same time?

For now, yes, because the two clubs are nowhere near each other in the pyramid.

Eldense and Cornellà currently sit three divisions apart, so there is no immediate ownership conflict, though the structure could become complicated if the clubs ever ended up in the same competition. The Royal Spanish Football Federation would be unlikely to allow two clubs under common ownership to compete in the same division.

This is the standard multi-club ownership problem across European football. It only becomes urgent if the smaller club climbs, which in Cornellà’s case would take several promotions.

Which other footballers own Spanish and European clubs?

Messi is following a well-worn path rather than inventing one.

• Cristiano Ronaldo holds a 25% stake in UD Almería through his CR7 vehicle.
• Gerard Piqué’s Kosmos Holding owns 90% of FC Andorra.
• Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé are part of investment groups that are majority shareholders at Alverca in Portugal and SM Caen in France.
• Luka Modrić owns part of Swansea City alongside Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart.The Almería stake means the Messi and Ronaldo rivalry now has a boardroom version in the same Spanish division.

Messi’s own portfolio extends beyond Spain. He has partnered with Luis Suárez on Uruguayan club Deportivo LSM, and his brother Matías serves as president at Lions FC. He is also set to receive a stake in Inter Miami once his playing contract expires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Messi own a football club?

Yes. He acquired fifth-tier UE Cornellà in April 2026, with the CSD approving his purchase of 85.05% of the club. He separately reached a preliminary agreement to become majority shareholder at second-division CD Eldense, subject to due diligence and approval from Spain’s National Sports Council.

What division does Eldense play in?

Eldense compete in Spain’s second division, the Segunda División, also branded as LaLiga Hypermotion. They were promoted after topping Group 2 of the 2025-26 Primera Federación with 69 points.

Is Messi still playing while owning a club?

Yes. He remained an active player with Inter Miami in MLS while expanding his ownership interests in Spain. He retired from international football with Argentina before the Eldense agreement was announced.

Did Messi buy Barcelona?

No. He has no ownership stake in FC Barcelona. Barcelona is a member-owned club, run by socios who elect its president, so it cannot be bought by a private investor in the way Eldense or Cornellà can.

How big is Eldense’s stadium?

The Nuevo Pepico Amat is listed at 5,776 capacity. Some club records put the usable figure closer to 4,036 seats, and the ground has hosted Copa del Rey visits from Barcelona, Valencia and Real Sociedad. Stadium size is seen as a potential constraint if Messi’s involvement drives a sharp rise in demand.

Will Messi play for Eldense?

Nothing in the club’s statements suggests that. The announcements have described a shareholding transaction, not a playing arrangement. Spain’s salary limit rules would also make a signing of that scale extremely difficult for a club of Eldense’s size.

Who owned Eldense before Messi?

An international investment group headed by Colombian businessman Juan Carlos Trujillo, which bought the club from Pascual Pérez in October 2025. That ownership also installed Carolina Holguín Tafur as the club’s first female president.

What to watch instead of the headlines

If you want to track whether this becomes a real football project rather than a branding exercise, ignore the transfer rumours and watch three things.

First, the CSD paperwork. Spanish takeovers need formal authorisation, and until that lands, an agreement is only an agreement. Second, the announced spending limit each season, since that figure is set from audited revenue and is the honest measure of how much room an owner has actually created. Third, the academy. Cornellà’s value was always its production line, and if the same thinking is applied at Elda, you will see it in youth signings and coaching hires long before you see it in the league table.

Small clubs bought by famous names usually take three to five years to show whether the money was structural or cosmetic. Judge it on the infrastructure, not on the first window.