Lionel Messi takes over Spanish second-division side Eldense
Lionel Messi is now the majority owner of Spanish second-division club CD Eldense.
The club announced the deal on 1 October, subject to authorisation from Spain’s sports council, the CSD. It makes the 39-year-old the owner of a team one step below La Liga, Spain’s top flight Reuters.
Eldense is set to sit at the centre of Messi’s football operation. Former Villarreal boss Javi Calleja was appointed manager as the takeover was confirmed BBC.
The start could hardly have gone better. Eldense beat Real Oviedo 4-1 in the first match under the new ownership. Messi marked it with a short message on Instagram: “Aupa Deportivo”, which translates roughly as “Come on Deportivo”.
The effect off the pitch was just as fast. Around a dozen sponsors came forward within a couple of days of the takeover being announced.
Eldense is Messi’s second club in Spain. He bought UE Cornella in April, a fifth-tier side on the edge of Barcelona playing four levels below the top flight. The plan is for Eldense, as the higher-placed club, to lead the group.
There is a third piece of the project in South America. Messi and Luis Suarez founded Deportivo LSM in Uruguay in May 2025. The club won promotion to Uruguay’s third tier in its first season.
Asked recently whether he would rather be a coach or an owner after playing, Messi chose owner. It fits what he is already building.
He is still playing. His contract with Inter Miami runs to the end of the 2028 season and is reviewed year by year. As part of that deal, he will receive shares in the Miami club when he retires BBC.
What makes this stand out is the shape of it. This is not one famous name lending his badge to one club. It is a small network across three countries, with teams at very different levels and a clear pecking order.
For fans, this means new eyes on grounds that rarely get them. A fifth-tier Catalan club, a second-division Spanish side chasing the dream of promotion, and a young Uruguayan team just finding its feet now share the same famous owner. That brings money, attention and pressure in equal measure.
