Lionel Messi’s deal ‘set to cost Barcelona a staggering £492m when it runs out this summer with star guaranteed £122m a season in gross salary from deal he signed four years ago’ as cash-strapped giants’ financial woes continue
- Lionel Messi’s contract will end up costing cash-strapped Barcelona £492m
- The 33-year-old is expected to leave the Nou Camp for free this summer
- A combination of salary, image rights and other variables has led to the cost
- Barcelona are in financial disarray with the pandemic plunging them into crisis
Lionel Messi’s current contract will end up costing Barcelona €555m (£492m) when it concludes this summer, El Mundo reported on Sunday.
The four-year deal was signed in 2017 and will end this June when the 33-year-old will be able to leave for nothing.
El Mundo say the combination of fixed salary, image rights, variables and the tax that Barcelona have had to pay on the contract will rise to €555,237,619.
Lionel Messi’s Barcelona contract is set to cost the cash-strapped club a whopping £492m
The figure was revealed by Spanish paper El Mundo, outlining Barcelona’s financial woes
Messi has been guaranteed €138m (£122m) a season in gross salary according to the leaked contract.
The leak is likely to infuriate Messi’s camp and further destabilize Barcelona as the club stumbles towards elections originally planned for last week but now postponed until March 7 because of the coronavirus.
It comes days after the club published their financial report for 2019-20 which revealed a gross debt of €1.2billion (£1bn).
The 33-year-old is expected to leave the Nou Camp for free this summer ending a 17-year stay
The Catalonians are in financial trouble due to the pandemic and have asked banks for help
The club has tried to secure a loan of €100m tied to the future sale of star players
That debt includes a short-term debt of €720m (£638m), €266m (£236m) of which is owed to various banks and financial institutions and needs to be paid before June 30.
One creditor is Goldman Sachs, an important long-term financial partner in the club’s planned 800m euros redevelopment of the Camp Nou.
Catalan newspaper El Periodico reported last week that the club was trying to secure a further loan of €100m (£89m) tied to the future sale of players.
Barcelona need to refinance their debts to avoid having to change the structure of the club, allowing private investors to inject money in return for a degree of control.
