It seems the contract extension saga between Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona would be over this week as the Argentine football icon is expected to sign his new deal before the weekend.
Lionel Messi was out of contract for the first time in his career on July 1, 2021. Since then, there have been speculations and counter speculations concerning his future at the club. One of such was that the record 6 time Ballon d’Or winner had agreed to a 50 percent pay cut for his new deal at Barcelona.
However, days after the news, nothing concrete happened between the representatives of Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona. All the eager fans of the club kept hearing was that negotiations were still ongoing.
Based on our findings, the paperwork for Messi’s new deal with Barcelona is ready but Messi did not sign the dotted line because the Spanish club is yet to balance their books. It is said that the money the club pays to players as wages is more than the revenue the club has been generating since the coronavirus pandemic invaded football in mid-March 2020.
Hence, the management of La Liga urged the club not to register new players to avoid breaching the league’s financial fair play rule. To do that, Barcelona have been trying to cut down the wages of all the players at the club.
The Spanish club have even gone as far as urging the club’s veterans like Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, and Sergi Roberto to accept a 40% pay cut before they can get a contract extension.
To also meet up with La Liga’s financial fair play rule, the club has decided to make players like Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, and Martin Braithwaite available for interested clubs to buy this summer.
Once these players leave the club, it would drastically reduce the club’s wage burden and give more room for the club to bring in new players ahead of the 2021-2022 season.
Fortunately for FC Barcelona and their dream of keeping Lionel Messi, a company known as CVC investments have agreed to invest £2.3 billion into La Liga from this season.
La Liga has also agreed to share 90 percent of the money with all the clubs in the league ahead of the season. Hence, FC Barcelona is expecting a share of £230 million from the money which could be enough to balance things up at the club.
The money which is expected to get to the club this week has made it financially safe for Messi to sign his new deal with the club before the end of the week.
Recall that the Argentina international has verbally agreed on a 5-year deal with Barcelona before now which means that all that is left for Messi is to sign the dotted line.
• Lionel Messi’s 2010/11 UCL campaign 🌟
— Team Leo (@TeamLeo10i) August 1, 2021
Greatest campaign ever❕pic.twitter.com/KiKUygKEDt
