Lionel Messi has agreed the acquisition that will make him the majority owner of CD Eldense, adding the Alicante club to the Spanish football interests he began building with the purchase of UE Cornella in April.
Eldense announced the change of control as the opening of a new era for a club founded in 1921. However, the transaction still requires approval from Spain’s Higher Sports Council (CSD), meaning the announcement marks the commercial completion of the agreement rather than the final removal of every regulatory condition.
Messi, who continues to play for Inter Miami, had reached an initial agreement over Eldense in September. Reports indicate that the deal involves the shares previously controlled by a Colombian investment group, giving the Argentina great control of the Segunda División side once the required clearance is granted.
A second club, but a different kind of test
The Eldense purchase makes Messi the owner of two Spanish clubs in the same year, yet the significance is not simply the number of investments. Cornella, in the Barcelona area, carries an obvious geographical association with his long career at Barcelona. Eldense is a markedly different proposition: a historic club from Elda, in the province of Alicante, operating in Spain’s second tier and facing immediate sporting pressure.
That distinction matters. The club’s announcement frames the takeover as a long-term plan embracing football, institutional development and its place in the community. Such language is familiar when a prominent new owner arrives, but Eldense’s circumstances mean that the project will be judged on more than visibility or commercial attention.
After seven league matches, Eldense sit 19th in the 22-team Segunda División. They have won once, collected five points and suffered four defeats. The position is not irreversible at this stage of the campaign, but it underlines the tension between a patient ownership vision and a team needing a rapid improvement on the pitch.
The approval caveat is important
Both accounts of the takeover make clear that regulatory authorisation remains outstanding. Eldense have announced Messi’s acquisition, while the reporting also identifies CSD approval as a condition required under Spanish sports law.
That leaves a practical distinction which the celebratory nature of the club statement cannot fully resolve: Messi has agreed the purchase and is set to become the controlling shareholder, but the legal process must still be completed. Neither report sets out a timetable for that approval, nor do they detail any conditions attached to it.
There is also little clarity yet on how directly Messi will be involved in the club’s daily operation. His global profile can transform Eldense’s visibility, but the reports do not identify an incoming executive team, sporting director, recruitment strategy or investment budget. They likewise do not indicate whether the existing football leadership will remain in place.
Those omissions are more consequential than the headline itself. Ownership changes can supply capital, attract partners and raise a club’s profile, but none automatically creates a sustainable competitive advantage. At second-tier level, decisions over staffing, player identification, academy pathways and financial control tend to determine whether fresh investment has lasting value.
Visibility and local identity
Eldense have emphasised both growth in professional football and the preservation of their blue-and-red identity. That is a notable balancing act. Messi’s name will inevitably give the club an international audience far beyond that normally available to a Segunda División side. The opportunity is substantial: greater attention can support commercial development and strengthen the club’s wider platform.
Equally, the club’s statement suggests an awareness that Eldense’s appeal is rooted in a century of local history rather than in a celebrity owner. The challenge will be to ensure that wider exposure complements that identity instead of overtaking it.
Messi’s football career gives the move unusual prominence. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022 and announced his international retirement in August. Yet his arrival as an owner should not be confused with an immediate footballing intervention. The reports establish a change in control, not a promise of player recruitment or a defined plan for the first team.
For now, Eldense have secured the attention that comes with one of football’s most recognisable figures taking charge. The next meaningful developments will be the regulatory decision and the details of how Messi’s ownership is translated into a working structure. With the club near the lower end of the Segunda División table, the long-term ambition outlined at the announcement will soon meet a much more immediate sporting reality.