Ya he’s had ample time now make up a horse shit story.
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Why would you think Messi has had a hair transplant? When has he not had that hairline?
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Probably just a side effect of the HGH?
FFP alive and well anyway -PSG give Neymar €30M per season, while paying €60M for Hakimi and €75M in pre-tax wages to Messi, Donnarumma, Wijnaldum, and Ramos, and even think about re-signing Mbappe in the same year it’s expected to lose €204M in revenue?
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Was FFP not abandoned a few months ago?
Leo the leak
What a load of fucking shite! If this multi-millionaire really had any feeling for Barcelona he’d stay and play for a year for nothing. He’s made his money. Fucking hypocrite cunt. Only thing that matters to this cunt is the money going into his bank account.
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He’s got so many hangers on around him he probably needs to play til he’s forty
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I wouldn’t say he’s a cunt as I don’t know him but yeah , play for free if you love the club so much. But maybe there are so many legal fine details maybe he couldn’t even if he wanted to. Why not just retire then ?
He wants the cash.
Lads expecting the second greatest ever Argentinian footballer to play for nothing because a club have made a fuck of their finances.
Gas cunts.
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Even if he played for free Barcelona still couldn’t register him as they would still be above their cap
How were they able to register Depay, Aguero, Garcia etc so?
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After the tears of his farewell Barcelona press conference, Lionel Messi will now make his next move. THE ATHLETIC presents the full inside story of Paris Saint-Germain’s pursuit of the football icon.
By Adam Crafton
9th Aug 2021, 12:31 PM
When Barcelona revealed that Lionel Messi would be leaving the club, Paris Saint-Germain did not initially flinch.
PSG admired Messi, of course, and he has been a long-term dream for their Qatari ownership since purchasing an initial 70 per cent stake in the French club in 2011. Indeed, since buying PSG outright the following year, contact has been relatively frequent between club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Jorge Messi, the father and agent of the Argentinian player.
Al-Khelaifi made a concerted attempt to sign Messi last summer, when he came perilously close to a move away from Barcelona.
A year on, PSG now believe they have their man. Messi spoke to the media on Sunday in Barcelona and say a public farewell to the Catalan club.
Even late on Saturday night, PSG sources insisted the deal was not yet signed off but everyone involved in the transfer was convinced it was going ahead.
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So, as PSG close in on the signing the footballer many consider to be the best to have ever played the game, The Athletic has spoken to numerous sources inside the deal. Here, we set out the chain of events that has led Messi to part ways with Barcelona after more than two decades in Catalonia.
We can reveal:
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At PSG, free-agent Messi will be paid a sign-on fee of €25 million ($40m AUD) and has agreed a two-year contract with a net salary of €25 million per year; the deal includes an option of a third year at the same rate
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PSG believed a move for Messi to be almost impossible as recently as Thursday afternoon before a phone call from Messi to head coach and countryman Mauricio Pochettino altered the dynamics of European football
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The investment in Messi means the French club are now open to offers for up to 10 of their players, while PSG would now prefer Paul Pogba to run down the final year of his contract at Manchester United instead of committing a fee to signing the midfielder this summer
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PSG have calculated internally that the commercial benefit of recruiting Messi will mean their investment “pays for itself”
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They view this deal as a relative bargain compared to the initial package, worth close to €500 million ($800m) over several years, that was suggested to PSG and Manchester City for signing Messi last summer
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PSG became anxious on Saturday that European champions Chelsea would make a late approach to the player’s family and create a bidding war
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Messi’s former Barcelona team-mate Neymar has helped to coax him into a reunion in Paris
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PSG remain hopeful that signing Messi will convince Kylian Mbappe to resist Real Madrid and commit his long-term future to the club too
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They intend to use Messi’s image to maximise commercial opportunities for next year’s World Cup in Qatar, which sources are confident the Argentinian will now make his final major tournament
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Rival club executives are already considering financial measures to tighten spending by the likes of PSG and City, who just bought Jack Grealish for £100 million.
[ This piece was originally published on The Athletic .
It may seem strange to think that PSG initially hesitated and then proceeded cautiously this week. Only 12 months ago, after all, Messi claimed that he should be allowed to leave Barcelona on a free transfer owing to a clause in his playing contract at the club.
Over 10 extraordinary days, he and his father held talks with Barcelona, as well as Manchester City and PSG. The family initially doubled down on their wish to cut ties before eventually speaking of a desire to stay at the club he “loves.”
Ultimately, Messi’s position became too complicated to escape. He fulfilled his contract and stayed at Barcelona for one more season, scoring 38 goals for them and then leading Argentina to the Copa America title last month.
Throughout this summer, intrigue surrounded Messi’s future after his contract expired at the end of June but the expectation was always that he would sign renewed terms and remain at Barcelona. The story of his career, in economic terms, has been one of an awful lot of faffing about before Barcelona eventually find a way to remunerate him to a satisfactory level.
Even this summer, he and his father accepted a new five-year agreement in which his wages would be halved but Barcelona simply could not make the numbers work — particularly as a new deal for Messi required £172 million to be cut from the club’s wage bill.
Barcelona announced that their record scorer, with 672 club career goals, 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and six Ballon d’Or prizes as world player of the year, would end a 21-year association with the club. They blamed “financial and structural obstacles” before adding that “both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled”. Even with Messi’s exit, the wage bill must still be reduced so they can register new signings Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero.
Despite the bleak portrait of Barcelona’s finances, scepticism greeted their statement. Many observers, including senior executives at rival clubs, interpreted the move to be a high-stakes power play in a game of brinkmanship against La Liga president Javier Tebas.
The tension was further heightened as Messi’s apparent departure coincided with a $3 billion agreement between La Liga and the private equity firm CVC. Under its terms, which have been approved by La Liga’s executive committee, Spain’s top two divisions would agree to sell 10 per cent of their commercial business and, in return, 90 per cent of the cash would be granted to clubs to help relieve the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Real Madrid and Barcelona, who do not sit on the executive committee, are opposed to the CVC investment as they fear it reduces their commercial potential when negotiating television rights deals. Consequently, many across football wondered whether Barcelona’s Messi statement, which arrived on the same afternoon as one from Real Madrid condemning the CVC investment, was all part of a bluff.
Yet, this time around, nobody buckled. La Liga stood firm and, for now, the CVC deal is intact ahead of a vote by clubs in the coming days.
As reality dawned on Messi, he needed to make his suitors believe that, this time around, he really was on the market.
To provide an idea of how rapidly matters escalated, PSG president Al-Khelaifi told confidantes late on Thursday afternoon that he did not consider a move for Messi to be feasible. He suspected it was likely to be too expensive and those previous discussions last summer had ended in failure.
Then came the phone call that transformed European football. Messi rang PSG coach and fellow Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino. He made clear he wanted to join PSG and the former Tottenham Hotspur manager passed the message up the chain of command to the boardroom.
The motivation for Messi is partially financial but he also knows Pochettino, while his former Barcelona team-mate Neymar has been publicly and privately encouraging him to join PSG since last year. Moments after PSG beat Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Champions League group stage in December, Neymar said: “What I want most of all is to play with Messi again, to be able to enjoy him once again on the pitch. We have to do it next season.”
Al-Khelaifi travelled to London for a few days after that match and he noticed the headlines the story had made. Privately, senior PSG officials at the time felt the pandemic could limit the club’s spending on transfer fees this summer but made clear that if Messi became available and showed a genuine interest, they would always work out a way to do the deal.
On Saturday, Neymar was described by sources as “delighted” with the chance to be reunited with the Argentinian.
Messi, it should be said, was happy to stay at Barcelona but also became tired of the endless politics at the Catalan club. He also recognises his chances of further Champions League glory will be enhanced at PSG, who beat his Barcelona team 4-1 in the Nou Camp en route to eliminating them in last season’s round of 16.
The deal began to accelerate on Thursday evening, as Al-Khelaifi received the advice of the club’s head of sponsorships, Marc Armstrong, who was set the challenge of working out the commercial potential of signing Messi.
Armstrong is a former vice-president of marketing at the NBA and commercial director at the NFL. The precise calculations remain private but the club believes an uplift in sponsorship deals, ticketing, tours and the profile of the French league will follow. Indeed, sources close to PSG argue their investment in Messi “will pay for itself” in the years to come.
Others, who view the club more cynically, will question how the signing of Messi can fit within the framework of UEFA’s financial fair play regulations — PSG already have Neymar earning €31 million ($50m AUD)net per year and remain locked in contract negotiations with Kylian Mbappe, who is leveraging interest from Real Madrid ahead of his current deal expiring next summer.
PSG have insisted throughout the past few days that Messi’s arrival will not impact Mbappe’s future, yet rarely has there been a situation where two clubs are so convinced a player will be theirs.
Real Madrid’s sales this summer, particularly defender Raphael Varane’s impending move to Manchester United, are predicated around creating funds to sign Mbappe, whether that is this summer or, more likely, on a free transfer in a year’s time. Yet PSG continue to insist the France striker will re-sign.
The French club understood why Mbappe delayed talks until after the European Championship because his advisors hoped a strong tournament would heighten his earning potential, only for this to backfire when he failed to score a goal and missed the decisive shootout penalty as world champions France were knocked out by Switzerland in the last 16.
Despite the delay, PSG sources say they remain confident he will re-sign and they believe Messi’s arrival will help convince him to stay.
As for PSG’s own finances, sources insist the club’s growing commercial profile, enhanced by Messi of course, will cover the costs and that there is space on their wage bill for the Messi deal to fall within the remit of FFP.
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Following Juventus’ 2018 signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Italian club upped ticket prices, went back to core sponsors to re-negotiate and uplift existing deals, and accelerated social-media growth to give more exposure to commercial clients. These steps are now expected at PSG, who were made aware internally of marketing data that suggested that up to 10 per cent of tourists who visit Barcelona cite football and Messi as their prime motivation.
The French government is also said to have expressed their pleasure with the possibility of Messi moving to Paris. It does feel optimistic to argue that a club who already have Mbappe and Neymar in their team could secure dramatic additional growth by signing Messi, yet this is the initial feedback PSG have heard from commercial partners and in-house analysts.
Despite the forecasted income from Messi’s arrival, PSG now have as many as 10 players up for sale or loan this summer, as they seek to reduce their wage bill to a manageable level.
They are conscious that major clubs across Europe are struggling to offload players for sizeable fees this summer but anticipate interest in players such as Abdou Diallo, Thilo Kehrer, Idrissa Gueye and Rafinha. Others, such as Mauro Icardi and Ander Herrera, who may be considered expendable, have stated a desire to stay.
For Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Leonardo, a busy month of wheeling-and-dealing now awaits.
PSG were already feeling satisfied by a summer in which they have recruited three high-profile free transfers in Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from AC Milan, Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid and Georginio Wijnaldum from Liverpool. In addition, the 22-year-old full-back Achraf Hakimi has been signed from Inter Milan in a deal worth an initial £51.3 million, while Pochettino will have his first full season in charge of the club having been hired in January.
As such, they were not craving Messi.
Yet all of a sudden, an opportunity presented itself.
Al-Khelaifi held extensive talks with Jorge Messi throughout Friday and, by that afternoon, the thrust of an agreement was in place.
PSG were confident that night, all the more so after Barcelona president Joan Laporta appeared at a press conference, without Messi, and said the club is expected to report a loss of nearly €487 million and that 95 per cent of their revenue currently goes to its wage bill. By now, PSG saw no way out for Barcelona and could be optimistic that they were not being played.
Messi’s Barcelona team-mates were by now resigned to losing their long-time talisman.
On Thursday when the statement dropped, only those sources who actually speak to Barcelona’s players took it at face value. One representative close to several players at the club insisted that day “this is no joke, it is for real” but underlined that “absolutely nobody expected this moment to arrive this summer”.
Some players and representatives wondered whether Messi’s devotion to the club may extend to playing on for a fraction of his agreed wages, or even for free, as a gesture of goodwill, but this was clearly never a serious option.
At Barcelona’s training ground, there was shock as the news filtered out. Aguero, a close friend partially convinced to join the club by his international team-mate, was naturally disappointed. Others fear a backlash from supporters. On Friday, Antoine Griezmann was left distressed while driving into the complex as he was heckled by supporters who suggested his refusal to leave the club and thus reduce the wage bill contributed to Messi’s inability to stay.
At PSG, Messi will receive a post-tax €25 million sign-on fee, in addition to €25 million per year in salary for the time he spends at the club. The contract is a two-year agreement, but includes the option of an additional third. His legal representatives travelled to Paris on Saturday to finalise it.
Even on Saturday afternoon, PSG still had a touch of anxiety.
Rumours spread internally that Chelsea had prepared a late approach to the Messi family and the club feared it may lead to the player’s demands increasing. Senior sources at new European champions Chelsea denied making an approach.
Back in Argentina, journalists close to the Messi entourage asked about speculation that Tottenham would attempt to sign Messi as they faced losing their own talisman Harry Kane (a target for Manchester City), underlining the weird and wonderful methods that can be used to exert pressure in a high-stakes transfer.
PSG know their spending will attract criticism and they will not be surprised to learn that executives at rival major European clubs spoke internally this weekend about how more stringent salary curbs could be imposed upon big-spending clubs such as themselves, Manchester City and Chelsea.
The mooted Super League, after all, represented an attempt by the aristocrats of European football to compete with those clubs they consider to be aided by oligarchs and nation states. City and Chelsea jumped on that train before it left the station, but were also first to jump off again as the pressure cranked up against the concept.
Internally, PSG believe they have struck something of a bargain for Messi, particularly as their information last summer was that City were prepared to invest as much as £500 million on a long-term package to get him to the Etihad. PSG were at the table last summer, too, and to sign Messi, it would have required an exorbitant transfer fee, as well as stratospheric wages, so their patience has paid off and the cost is now greatly reduced.
PSG reviewed their transfer policy last year and decided to concentrate on high-quality players whose contracts are running down, or young players who are considered worthy of vast fees. The unexpected Messi move means PSG are now likely to ask Manchester United’s Paul Pogba to run down the 12 months that remain on his contract before signing him as a free agent next summer. It remains to be seen whether this appeals to the French midfielder or whether he would prefer the certainty of signing a new long-term deal at United.
Whatever happens with Pogba, Pochettino now has a forward line of Mbappe, Messi and Neymar, and PSG increasingly feel like football’s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters.
But there is also a broader narrative to this latest signing.
PSG are owned by Qatari investors — the club’s ultimate owner, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is also the Emir and head of state in Qatar.
The next 18 months are monumental for the image that country wishes to present to the world ahead of and during the 2022 World Cup, which is being hosted by the Gulf state next November and December. For a Qatar-owned club to possess Mbappe, Messi and Neymar in the run-up to the tournament yields significant commercial potential and ensures that major voices in the sport are lining up behind the project.
Sources familiar with Messi’s deal at PSG said the contract does not contain a specific clause obliging him to appear at the World Cup next year, should Argentina qualify, but it is expected that such an agreement will be reached once he is on board. He will be 35 by then so, almost certainly, it will be his final World Cup as a player — a huge boon for the Qatar tournament.
Those who follow Qatari diplomacy closely — or perhaps Newcastle United — will also know that tensions remain with their Saudi Arabian neighbours. As a result, the Qataris will take pleasure in signing up Messi, particularly after reports surfaced earlier this year claiming he had been approached by the Saudi tourist board to become one of the faces of their brand.
Equally, a rivalry exists between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Saudis have relaxed relations to a more significant extent than the UAE with Qatar, so there will be a little glee, too, in Qatar-owned PSG pipping UAE-owned Manchester City to Messi after years of speculation that Messi would reunite with his old Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola at the Etihad. This time around, City were simply unable to compete as they have signed Grealish from Aston Villa and continue to chase Tottenham’s Kane.
For Al-Khelaifi, it caps an extraordinary calendar year in which he has emerged as the most authoritative voice among European football executives. When the Super League idea emerged in April, PSG, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund declined to participate. The PSG president is now also chairman of the European Club Association, a body which represents the interests of clubs regularly competing in European competition, following the resignations of executives who were involved in the Super League breakaway. Al-Khelaifi initially politely rejected the offer but a week of persuasion led him to accept the role.
In Messi, however, he has secured what he really craves: the player most likely to take PSG to the kudos and promised land of a Champions League final victory.
The world will be watching.
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“Miguel” says they haven’t been registered with La Liga yet
Ooft
Gas cunts.