Messi takes control of CD Eldense, his first professional club in Spain

While some are thinking about his next goal for Inter Miami, Messi is, apparently, out buying clubs in Spain. CD Eldense confirmed this Thursday that the Argentine superstar has taken control of the team, his second club on Spanish soil after acquiring Cornella earlier this year.

Eldense, until now in the hands of Colombian investment group Grupo TH (which also owns teams in Colombia and Switzerland), plays in the Segunda Division. And that changes the picture quite a bit: unlike Cornella, which competes in Segunda Federacion and remains semi-professional, Eldense is indeed a professional club. In fact, it's the first professional Spanish club Messi has invested in.

The club itself made that clear in a statement, making no effort to hide its enthusiasm over the arrival of one of the most important figures in the history of sports:

The arrival of one of the most important figures in the history of sports to Spanish professional soccer as the owner of CD Eldense marks the start of a long-term project aimed at driving the club's athletic, institutional and social development.CD Eldense

One thing to note: there's still a step left before the deal is fully done. The operation needs the approval of the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), Spain's top sports authority, to be finalized.

Two clubs, one lingering question

For now, owning two clubs in Spain doesn't create any immediate conflict: Eldense and Cornella are separated by three divisions, so there's no risk of them crossing paths. What remains uncertain is what will happen to Cornella's ambitions going forward, since the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) would be unlikely to allow two clubs with the same majority owner to compete in the same category.

Messi, 39, isn't stopping there either: he also holds a stake, alongside his Inter Miami teammate Luis Suarez, in Uruguay's Deportivo LSM. It seems collecting jerseys is no longer enough for him.

A club with history and a rough present

Eldense, founded in 1921, spent most of its history outside Spanish soccer's top two divisions. It returned to the Segunda in 2023, something it hadn't managed since 1964, dropped down again in 2025 and came back up again this very summer. In short, the last few seasons have been a roller coaster.

And the present doesn't exactly inspire optimism either: the team failed to win any of its first four matches of the season, which cost coach Claudio Barragan his job. He was dismissed just this week, leaving the club to begin this new chapter without anyone in the dugout.

Eldense plays its home matches at the Nuevo Pepico Amat, a modest stadium with a capacity of 5,776 in the city of Elda, in the province of Alicante. With Messi's arrival, the club is now on its third change of ownership in barely a year, a clear sign of just how unstable its institutional direction has been lately.