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Lionel Messi transfer news - FC Barcelona to PSG
After what seemed like years of “will he stay, or will he go?”, Lionel Messi finally closed the curtain on the Barcelona chapter of his playing career. An affiliation that lasted over 20 years was finally brought to an end; an end which no fan saw coming. The man who has encapsulated Barcelona and, for the better part of five years, pulled the Catalonia side up by their red and blue shirt tails and dragged them to success, or in poorer seasons, to the finish line.
The signings of Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero, and Eric Garcia on free transfers signalled some shrewd business by Barcelona heading into the 2021-22 season. Shrewd business until it slowly became clear that La Liga regulations would put paid to them registering their talismanic record top-scorer.
Financial mismanagement over the previous five years means that Barcelona have become riddled with debt. Barcelona have spent £945million on new arrivals since 2015, that doesn’t count player wages, bonuses, other fees that go into such complex deals to get their desired player over the line.
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Messi had made his desire to leave Barcelona clear a few times over previous seasons, there was famously a standoff between the Argentine and former Barcelona Club President Josep Maria Bartomeu. Messi wasn’t happy with the direction the club were going on and off the pitch. On 1st July 2021, Messi became a free agent after his contract expired, and the ears of football’s financial elite (mainly Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain) perked up.
Messi and Barcelona managed to reach an agreement on a new five-year deal; the club cited numerous financial obstacles which would stop the contract being signed on the same day as his previous one expired.
“Leo wanted to stay, and the club wanted him to stay but with the La Liga rules it has not been possible. To comply with the league’s fair play regulations, we had to accept an agreement that mortgaged the club’s TV right for half a century and FC Barcelona is above everything else.” – Barcelona President, Joan Laporta.
Club salaries represented a total of 110% of club income, even with Messi now off the books, the wage budget is still a staggering 95% of income.
Now, let’s have a look at the mind-melting numbers behind the Messi move to Paris.
A two-year deal worth £35million after taxes and including bonuses was agreed, that works out to:
He has the option for a third-year worth £25million, while also receiving a £25million signing bonus for joining PSG; he’ll also get a cut of his image rights.
His Father and Agent, Jorge, would have benefited very nicely from such a financial package!
Depending on how the negotiations went, he would have been due a cut of his son’s annual salary and any sponsorship deals that have been penned as well.
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Messi joins Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Giorginio Wijnaldum and Sergio Ramos as PSG’s new recruits in their star-studded team looking to push for continental and domestic glory. PSG may be due a financial fair play slap on the wrist, but the revenue for shirts and sponsorships from signing Messi and their other stars, combined with the seemingly bottomless pockets of their Qatar-based owners mean that they’ll be nowhere near Barcelona’s financial plight anytime soon.
The money floating around is good news for Michael Jordan too, as it’s reported he earned a cool $7million dollars in the week that Messi signed for PSG due to shirt sales alone. Due to his Air Jordan brand partnership with PSG, His Airness gets a 5% cut of every shirt sold. When the “Messi 30” shirts started flying off the shelves, everyone involved saw their respective currency signs in their eyes.
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