BARCELONA – The newspaper El Mundo del Siglo XXI published exclusive information this Sunday in its edition, which provided documentary evidence supporting this information, according to which the last contract Lionel Messi signed with Barcelona assumed that the Barça club would pay 555 million euro until June 2021, always counting, yes, that a series of variables were met that were not always met.
The publication of the news elicited both Barcelona’s reaction, by renouncing any responsibility in its appearance and by announcing that it will take legal action against the newspaper for being a ‘document that is and will be exclusively private. governed by the principle of confidentiality between the parties’ and understand that its publication could harm, and the Argentinian footballer’s own environment, confirming to ESPN Deportes that his lawyers are already pursuing a lawsuit against El Mundo before the publication of the contract, studying to involve those who from within the club had access to said contract and could have leaked it.
Barcelona sources ‘categorically’ rejected that the leak could have come from the club itself, warning that said contract was also in the hands of LaLiga, the tax authorities and the law firm that at the time processed the burofax requesting the exit from the player.
The comprehensive report, of which no assessment was made from Messi’s area, specifies all amounts that the club must pay him between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 seasons, both in terms of fixed and variable salaries in the employment contract and in the image contract. and whose total amounts are 555 million 237 thousand 619 euros gross, which in net amounts would represent an income for Leo, the information also states, of approximately 297 million euros.
The contract, in terms of remuneration, begins by revealing that Messi has a fixed annual salary of 61 million 328 thousand 520 gross euros under the concept of ‘salary, tab, bonuses per game won, allowances, compensation for private travel and seniority’ and states fixed various variables in terms of the number of games played (more than 60 percent of the total team), the titles won or the Champions League stages elapsed, as well as individual prizes.
To this more than 61.3 million euros of the employment contract, another 10 million 822 thousand 680 euros per season is added for the same concepts in the image contract, or 43 million 290 thousand 720 euros.
EXPENSES AND INCOME
If the newspaper’s publication highlighted the significant economic impact it has on the concept of spending for Barça, citing more than 555 million euros at a particularly delicate time due to the pharaonic debt dragging the club, then it is not taken into account. with the income. that generates Messi’s membership, which can be discovered by the numerous ad contracts the entity wins thanks to the Argentinian footballer.
This explains both the € 55 million contract signed in 2017 by the Japanese multinational company Rakuten as the club’s main sponsor, referring to Leo’s tenure … and the one-year extension signed in 2020 (until 2022) of which the decrease of the figure is understood by the incidence of the covid and also by the uncertainty about the future of the player.
“Messi is the fundamental part of Barça’s atypical income. I analyze how much money he generates for the club and the figure is between 250 and 300 million euros per year. If his gross salary is 140, Barça will receive at least 100 million euros. revealed in a conversation with the EFE agency Marc Ciria, financial advisor and partner of the firm Diagonal Inversiones.
“If you sell the Barcelona brand all over the world, you put Messi on the face. Under these circumstances, no brand would dare to renew for another three or four years, because it is unknown what the value of the club will be without them. player. ”Ciria said, adding that 40 percent of spectators who go to Camp Nou on match day are“ national and international tourists, who contribute a lot of money to the club and come to see Messi’s Barça ”.
The sum of the contracts from Rakuten (55 million to last renewal), Nike (105 million fixed per season), Konami (20) and Beko (19 expiring this year) have brought Barcelona about 200 million euros per year. the financier they have in Leo Messi the protagonist.