Lionel Messi is without a doubt one of the best players of all time. In order to keep the six-time world footballer in the club over the years, FC Barcelona apparently had to dig deep into their pockets. And put yourself in financial difficulties.
Research by the Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” has now revealed the full extent of the daring financial policy. The paper has the attacker’s 30-page contract, which reveals unimaginable numbers.
Accordingly, the Argentine has received an incredible 555 million euros from his employer since his last contract extension in December 2017. For the signing of the contract alone, they agreed on a final bonus of 97.9 million euros.
The total of almost half a billion euros includes not only the basic salary but also payments for the image rights and various success-related bonuses. After tax, Messi had an estimated total of 297 million euros, which amounts to a net salary of over 210,000 euros per day.
“El Mundo” comes to a devastating verdict on the superstar’s inflated references. The paper calls Messi’s working paper a “pharaoh contract” that “ruined” FC Barcelona. In fact, after the era of ex-president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who initiated the deal with the Argentine, FC Barcelona is on the verge of over-indebtedness with liabilities of 1.17 billion euros.
Financial rehabilitation of FC Barcelona becomes a major project
According to a report by “Marca”, the Catalans even use all kinds of balance sheet tricks to cover up the imbalance. Many transfers were agreed as installments. At the same time, the new entries are fully on the credit side on the balance sheet and are therefore considered as security for the loans.
Many contaminated sites are therefore not even fully included in the mountain of debt. For example, Liverpool FC is still waiting for around 29 million euros from the transfer of Brazilian Coutinho, which took place in 2018.
By the end of the season alone, FC Barcelona will have to repay around 260 million euros to its creditors. In view of the reduced income in the wake of the pandemic, this can only be achieved with significant savings or new loans.
It is therefore unlikely that Barca will renew the expiring contract with Messi until the end of the season on such terms. The exceptional footballer had already flirted with a farewell to his long-term employer last summer.
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