A Catalan court sided with Barcelona on Tuesday, allowing the club to register Gavi as a first-team player despite La Liga's objections. Because of wage limit problems in La Liga, the 18-year-old midfielder's new contract wasn't officially recognized until a recent judgment.
Thanks to it, the youngster is no longer registered under his Barcelona B agreement. Consequently, he is eligible to wear a first-team jersey and has chosen the iconic No. 6 worn by his coach, Xavi Hernandez.
League president Javier Tebas is believed to be frustrated that the court verdict was issued without his organization being informed. After hearing of the registration denial for Gavi, he has committed to making sure an appeal is filed.
Javier Tebas allegedly doing same stunt to Gavi that he did to Lionel Messi
It remains to be seen if there will be a new twist to a chapter of Tebas vs Barcelona, after allegations that the former fought hard to stop the Blaugrana from registering Lionel Messi in 2004. The Spanish media has recently speculated that the current La Liga president opposed the Argentine's registration but failed. After waiting 18 years, he allegedly attempted to pull the same stunt with Gavi.
As per Javi Miguel of Diario AS and El Confidencial, the then Deportivo Alaves legal adviser Javier Tebas did all in his power to prevent Messi from being registered as a Barca first-team player in the year he won the Under-20 World Cup. At the time, Tebas took the case before the National Professional Football League (LFP) and even fought for them to annul Messi's license to participate in the First Division competition.
However, the battle only resulted in the Camp Nou outfit being the winning side. As a result, La Liga registered Messi and little by little he became a very important player for Barcelona, alongside Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o. When asked about Tebas at the time, the Argentine said, as quoted by El Mundo, "I have nothing against him and I've never been interested in what he does".
