Lionel Messi’s eye-watering demands to stay at Barcelona in 2020 have been revealed in a significant leak.
The veteran superstar left the Spanish giants in summer 2021 after 21 years at the club, joining Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer when his contract expired.
And according to revelations from El Mundo on Tuesday evening, Messi’s stipulations to stay at cash-strapped Barcelona included a massive signing-on bonus of £8.7million and a private jet to fly his family back to Argentina at Christmas.
Lionel Messi’s eye-watering demands to stay at Barcelona in 2020 have now been revealed
Messi left Barcelona for PSG in 2021 – but before his departure, he had requested a signing-on bonus of £8.7million and a private jet to fly his family back to Argentina every Christmas
He also requested a luxury executive box at Barca’s Nou Camp stadium for both his family and the family of then-team mate Luis Suarez (second right)
He also requested a luxury executive box at the Nou Camp for his family and the family of former Barca team-mate Luis Suarez, with the security of a three-year deal until 2023 plus an option to extend.
Other demands made in June 2020 included lowering his buyout clause from £610m to a nominal fee of just £8,700 – almost negligible given the money in today’s market.
And after accepting a 20 per cent pay cut in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he asked for his net salary of £65m a year to be increased to £71.5m a year for the next two seasons, plus three per cent in annual interest.
The information was recovered from emails between Jorge Messi, Lionel’s father and representative, the 35-year-old’s legal team, and Barcelona chiefs including then-president Josep Bartomeu.
El Mundo report Barcelona accepted all of Messi’s demands except two: refusing to lower his release clause to £8,700 and making the £8.7m signing-on bonus conditional on the club returning to their pre-pandemic income, which was and is unlikely given their well-publicised financial issues.
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