Inter Miami CF star Lionel Messi was headline news across Barcelona again on Thursday following the surprise announcement that he had bought Spanish fifth-tier team UE Cornellà.
The effect has been immediate. Messi's acquisition has been celebrated as a "great day" by the mayor of Cornellà de Llobregat, Antonio Balmón, while the club's following on Instagram had already grown from 40,000 followers to nearly 200,000 within 24 hours of the news breaking.
It is not Messi's first step into ownership. The Argentina captain is also a partner in Uruguayan pro team Deportivo LSM alongside his Miami and former Barça teammate Luis Suárez.
What plans Messi has for Cornellà, who play in green-and-white just to the south of Barcelona, remain to be seen. However, based on recent history and the club's talent for developing players, there is some room for growth in the coming years.
Here's what you need to know about Messi's new club.
- More than a jersey: Kits are putting soccer's underdogs on the map
- Pep up your wardrobe with Man City's Guardiola-branded attire
- Is it happening again? Arsenal's stumble in title race feels familiar
1. Love thy neighbour
Messi has literally pitched up on Barça's rivals Espanyol's front lawn. Semi-professional Cornellà's base -- Camp Municipal de Cornellà -- could hardly be closer to Espanyol's RCDE Stadium. The two grounds share the same access points. You could go from watching a game at one stadium to the other in less than a minute.
Location aside, there are not many similarities between the two stadiums. Cornellà play on an artificial pitch, have one recognised stand and a capacity for around 1,500 fans. The RCDE Stadium holds 37,776 spectators and is a 4-star UEFA-rated stadium which opened in 2009.
Espanyol's location in Cornellà, a municipality which is part of the Barcelona metro network, has been used against them in their rivalry with Barça. The club are known in full as RCD Espanyol de Barcelona -- they were founded in the city and played there for over a century before moving to RCDE Stadium. But former Barça defender Gerard Pique, himself the owner of second-division side Andorra, caused controversy in 2018 by referring to them as "RCD Espanyol de Cornellà."
2. Player production line
Cornellà has proven a successful launching pad for many professional careers. Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya and former Barça defender Jordi Alba are among the high-profile names to have spent time at the club. Current Barça centre-back Gerard Martín also came through at Cornellà, with Espanyol's Javi Puado and Real Betis' Aitor Ruibal, Austin FC's Ilie Sánchez and Senegal international Keita Baldé among the other notable alumni still playing.
It helps that the youth teams regularly play against Barça and Espanyol, giving them not just the chance to test themselves against the best but also a shop window for a move to one of LaLiga's powerhouses based nearby.
The first team, meanwhile, have often shared a division with Barcelona's B team -- and even their C team previously. In fact, Messi, playing for the now defunct C team in 2004, featured for Barça in a goalless draw in a league match against Cornellà.
3. Back-to-back relegations
Messi could even have played for Barça against Cornellà in the Copa del Rey in 2021, but he missed the tie as he served a two-game suspension following a red card in the Spanish Supercopa final.
Cornellà took that game to extra time, with Barça eventually winning 2-0, but it has been downhill since then for Messi's new club. At the time, they were in the third tier of Spanish football. They remained there for a couple more years, but suffered back-to-back relegations in 2023-24 and 2024-25 to leave them in the fifth tier.
Known as the Tercera Federation, they are one of 324 clubs divided into 18 regionalised groups fighting to work their way back up the Spanish football pyramid.
4. Messi vs. Alba
There is an added twist to Cornellà's promotion push this season: they're up against Messi's old Barça and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba, who is part of the ownership group at L'Hospitalet, another club based to the south of Barcelona.
Alba, along with ex-Barça midfielder Thiago Alcântara, now part of Hansi Flick's staff at Camp Nou, has been involved since last year, advising his hometown club on various strategic and sporting decisions.
Both Cornellà and L'Hospitalet are currently in the playoff positions, with five points separating the two teams with four games to go. And, in a script fit for Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's "Welcome to Wrexham" documentary, the two sides -- of course -- meet on the final day of the season.
5. Could Messi reignite Tom Brady link?
While we're talking Reynolds, McElhenney and celebrity owners in European football, perhaps Messi's arrival at Cornellà could lead to the club reigniting their partnership with Tom Brady's Birmingham City? Cornellà and Birmingham agreed a strategic partnership focused on youth development, scouting collaboration and player pathway exchanges in 2018. Several minor deals followed, but the partnership appears to currently be on ice.
And that's not the only American football link, either: former NFL star J.J. Watt became a minority investor in Espanyol last year.