The Argentine agreement is the most expensive in the history of the sport, as it is estimated that Messi would earn about $ 380,000 a day for four years.
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February 1, 2021 4 min read
This story originally appeared on Alto Nivel
Anyone who does not live under a stone knows that Lionel Messi is one of the most sought-after athletes of the last decade. This Sunday the value of the Argentine footballer was confirmed, who signed the most expensive contract in the history of sport . It is his agreement for four years with FC Barcelona for more than 500 million dollars .
The newspaper El Mundo exclusively published the terms of Messi’s contract , signed on November 25, 2017. The document stipulates a payment of 555,237,619 gross euros (about 674 thousand dollars or 13,790 million Mexican pesos). These would be paid in four seasons , between 2017/2018 and until June 30, 2021, which “constitutes the largest contract in the history of sport .”
They clarify that the amount is “the sum of a fixed salary, image rights, a series of unpublished multimillion-dollar bonuses to date, allowances and a string of variables depending on various objectives .”
The publication indicates that the payment of taxes and Social Security represents about 297 million euros (360 million dollars). That is, more than half of this amount corresponds to the treasury.
According to the Spanish newspaper, the content of the contract between Messi and Barcelona had remained in “the most absolute secret” , until now.
The document consists of 30 pages, divided between an employment contract and an image rights contract . The first covers 85% of the agreed amounts, and the second is 15% of the salary that the Law allows clubs to pay for this concept.
The footballer’s income includes one for contract renewal (115,225,000 euros or 139.6 million dollars), and another for loyalty (78 million euros or 94.6 million dollars). By this time, the Argentine would have already secured the collection of 92% of his contract, says El Mundo .
The economic crisis of the Barça
The information caused a stir because a few weeks ago it was learned that FC Barcelona has a debt of 1,173 million euros . Lionel Messi’s pay is also estimated to double what the team spends in all of its sports sections.
Last December, Carles Tusquets , president of the FC Barcelona Management Commission, admitted that he wanted to sell Lionel .
“Economically, he would have sold Messi . It would have been the most desirable, and more taking into account the salary limits established by La Liga, ” said Tusquets .
Messi and Barcelona will take legal action
The Catalan team denied having leaked the contract and announced legal actions against the media for “the damages that this publication may cause”, as confirmed by the newspaper El Mundo itself .
In a statement, the Barça team regretted that the agreement “has transcended publicly” , since it is “an exclusively private document” . He pointed out that this is governed by the principle of “confidentiality between the parties .”
The club expressed its “absolute support” for Lionel Messi , “especially in the face of any attempt to discredit his image and to deteriorate his relationship with the entity where he has been sportingly trained, until he becomes the best player in football history .
For their part, the 31-year-old footballer’s lawyers are working “in a lawsuit against El Mundo for the publication of the contract,” say sources close to Messi , quoted by EFE agency. The Argentine legal team is studying “to implicate those from within the club who had access to said contract and could have leaked it .”