Barcelona have reached a deal on principle with Leo Messi for the Argentine veteran to remain with the Catalan club for another five years, but on a reduced wage, many Spanish media outlets reported yesterday.
Messi, who earlier this month finally landed a major international trophy with Argentina when they beat rivals Brazil to win the Copa America, “will sign a five-season contract with a release clause of 600mn euros ($709mn),” according to Catalan sports daily L’Esportiu.
“The player will reduce his wage by 50%. Now it just remains for the lawyers to look over the agreement and give it the OK. Once that happens (his) continuation will be official,” said Madrid-based sports daily Marca which confirmed L’Esportiu’s initial story.
According to the latter, Messi, 34, will earn in the region of 20mn euros basic next season with the Catalan club, which he has led to ten league crowns as well as four Champions Leagues. Last season was a comparative disappointment as the club could only land the Spanish Cup and exited in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Last summer Messi sought to leave Barca as a free agent via a clause in his contract before agreeing to see out the final year as the club threatened to go to court. There had been speculation that Messi would sign on for two years and then potentially head to Major League Soccer, although friend and former Barca teammate Neymar has said he would love to team up with him again at Paris Saint Germain.
“Finally, both parties saw fit to extend their link for a longer period of time,” reported Barcelona-based sports daily Sport. Another Barcelona sports paper Mundo Deportivo suggested the longer contract length was part of a quid pro quo taking into account a curtailed salary structure as Barcelona battle crippling debts.
Several of the papers said an official announcement on the deal would follow within days. With Barcelona labouring under debts of several hundred million euros, Spanish media made much earlier this year of the reported 555mn euros paid Messi over four seasons from November 2017 to the end of last month.
National daily El Mundo splashed in January on what it termed “Messi’s pharaonic contract which is ruining Barca” — that sum including image rights and a series of performance-related bonuses with the player reportedly earning a net 297mn euros.
La Liga chief Javier Tebas said last week that Barcelona, which has a total debt of more than 1bn euros ($1.18bn), would not be shown any leniency. Messi’s last contract, signed in 2017, was the most lucrative in world sport.
The club have been trying to rebuild the squad with Junior Firpo, Jean-Clair Todibo and Carles Alena being sold to make way for free signings Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia.
A report also said Barca will now be looking to stage a clear-out of Ronald Koeman’s squad to free up some space and tame the wage bill. Among those players likely to be asked to move on are Antoine Griezmann, who has been linked with a move back to Atletico Madrid, Samuel Umtiti and Philippe Coutinho.