Lionel Messi left Barcelona for PSG in the summer of 2021 after 17 years in Spain because the club were facing financial woes that made it hard to afford his huge salary and other benefits.
After playing out his two-year contract at PSG, Barcelona tried to re-sign Messi back and held several meetings with his father Jorge Messi as well as manager Xavi Hernandes personally talking to him, but the Argentina captain chose to go to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer instead.
Now, it has come to light that Barcelona still owe Messi large sums of money from the four-year contract he signed in 2017 and according to club president Joan Laporta, it will take the club until 2025 to complete these payments.
Laporta revealed this pretty much unknown situation during an interview with Spanish outlet La Vanguardia, in which he said that the club owes Messi salary deferrals that were agreed with Barcelona’s former bosses.
“(Do) we owe any money to Messi? The only thing we owe are the salary deferrals that were agreed with the previous board of the club. This is producing pending payments that will come to an end in 2025. We are paying everything religiously.” Laporta told La Vanguardia.
Messi’s last contract with Barcelona was worth a whopping €138 million (£118m) per season in salary and potential add-ons and it proved to be a financial burden to the club. Things got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic when football activities paused for months and when they returned, clubs played in empty stadiums which further crippled Barcelona’s earnings.
As a result, the club asked players to take a pay cut or defer their salaries. Some players did both, others did the latter and Messi, who was the club captain then, was one of them. It was an agreement reached during that time to ease the club’s financial problems.
Part of this money remains to be paid two years after he left the club, but the good news is that Barcelona are still fulfilling their obligation and paying Messi the money he is entitled to.
According to The Athletic, it is unclear how much money he agreed to defer, and how much of it is still pending. What is clear, as Laporta revealed, is that both parties agreed to divide the outstanding amount into smaller portions that will be paid up until 2025.
