Where's he goin?


https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2021/8/5/22611508/lionel-messi-will-not-renew-barcelona-deal-claims-bombshell-report

https://www.espn.com/soccer/inter-miami-cf/story/4404579/inter-miami-optimistic-lionel-messi-will-play-for-them-in-major-league-owner

I suspect Smaug (AKA the Abu Dhabi Group) will uncover the Arkenstone and hand it over. Another half a billion euros won't be missed.

Gotta be PSG, right? Unless some Italian team just throws everything they have at him.

Man City will be a contender. the Pep connection plus the unlimited $$$ they can throw at him.

Years of roster mismanagement leads to this. Wow. You hate to see it

young eugene said:

---

Man City will be a contender. the Pep connection plus the unlimited $$$ they can throw at him.

---

It's funny, I thought Aguero went to Barca because he wanted to be with Messi.

Texaggie7nine said:

---

young eugene said:

---

Man City will be a contender. the Pep connection plus the unlimited $$$ they can throw at him.

---

It's funny, I thought Aguero went to Barca because he wanted to be with Messi.

---

Makes you wonder how all the other signees feel too.

Inter Miami

Dude milked Barcelona to the brink of bankruptcy and now leaves them hanging

He did want out to go to City last year and they did everything to prevent it.

Messi to Man City and Kane asks for forgiveness and stays with Tottenham.,

City signed Grealish and he got #10

I will put down $20 that Messi will go to PSG.

GuatemalanAg said:

---

Dude milked Barcelona to the brink of bankruptcy and now leaves them hanging

---

Yup, $555MM for four years and then leaves. Remains to be seen who the cules blame for this. El Mundo supposedly has the contract but I haven't tried to get around the paywall to see it all.

Quote:

---

According to L'Equipe, Messi's salary breaks down to an incredible weekly wage of 2.1 million for the 33-year-old Argentine. That works out at an eye-watering 108.2 million per year.

---

That seems to corroborates the $555M for 4 years deal (108M pounds ~ 150M USD)

Top Weekly Wages

I wonder if Grealish will mysteriously fail his medical at City now? They may have their sights set higher now.

young eugene said:

---

Man City will be a contender. the Pep connection plus the unlimited $$$ they can throw at him.

---

They just signed Grealish, may be signing Kane, and have to be massively over FFP limits already.

This could be a move to put pressure on la liga.if he leaves, who's the highest profile player la liga has left?

gambochaman said:

---

This could be a move to put pressure on la liga.if he leaves, who's the highest profile player la liga has left?

---

La Liga just secured almost $3B loan to inject funds to the clubs. I'm not sure this was done to put pressure on the league.

MLS!

Man City representatives returning Jack Grealish to Aston Villa after hearing Messi has rejected a new contract at Barcelonapic.twitter.com/YyxCcPWnrZ

— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) August 5, 2021

According to the Barca subreddit, Messi was devastated and offered to go down to 30% of his salary. But they couldn't register him even if they paid him 1 euro (and they probably can't afford all the guys they did sign already). And that he still hasn't contacted any other club.

This may be a ploy by Barca to get La-liga to back down, to guilt legacy players into agreeing to lower salaries, or a combo of the two.

That doesn't make any sense. The cash injection La Liga just received via PE purchase of 10% stake provides funding to clubs, with Real and Barca receiving the most due to a sliding scale.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210804-spain-s-la-liga-to-get-private-equity-cash-injection

Here is my theory on what happened:

La Liga came up with this $3B investment deal thinking it was the solution to everybody's problems. Barca would have the revenue they needed to sign Mess and La Liga wouldn't have had to bend their rules for one club. However, Real Madrid and Barca hate the deal since they think it disproportionately helps the small clubs over the large ones (something like 10% of their profit would be owed to this firm for 50 years). Barca expresses their discontent and La Liga is like "screw you.. we did this for YOU." So Barca comes out and announces that they can't sign Messi to put pressure on La Liga. After all, the transfer window closes in early Sept. That is plenty of time to work roster magic. They didn't have to announce today. Who would give up that quick on the GOAT who desperately wants to stay and is even willing to take a 70% paycut to do so? Nobody.

This is Barca saying, "go back to the drawing board, La Liga.. the deal you thought would solve this DOESN'T." It also serves another purpose. All the other players who refused to take pay cuts look like asses if Messi was willing to take a 70% cut. If they are part of the reason Messi couldn't be signed, then they would be hated by the fans.

If I had to guess, a compromise will be reached: A bunch of players will take pay cuts, Messi will take a 70% cut (or maybe not that high), and La Liga will offer some sort of partial La Liga waiver and chalk it up to covid.

Great video put out tonight by FC Barcelona

I am a total neutral in La Liga and South American soccer. I do believe that Messi stands alone among all athletes in my lifetime. Brady and Jordan and Bonds and Bolt and a few others haver captured their sports, but those sports dont capture the world quite like soccer does. The most played sport in the world by a good margin, and he has been the best.

Seems like a humble guy too who loves his country and his club. I hope they figure this **** out because he should not be done at Barcelona. I can't imagine watching him play for another club.

carl spacklers hat said:

---

That doesn't make any sense. The cash injection La Liga just received via PE purchase of 10% stake provides funding to clubs, with Real and Barca receiving the most due to a sliding scale.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210804-spain-s-la-liga-to-get-private-equity-cash-injection

---

Yeah, but apparently Real and Barca hate the deal. In their view, it is still somehow biased towards the small clubs. So they have every intention of not signing off on this deal.


I wonder if Barca/Real can threaten to pull a tu/ou and jump to another league. Or if there are big fines and whatnot involved in that.

aTmAg said:

---

I wonder if Barca/Real can threaten to pull a tu/ou and jump to another league. Or if there are big fines and whatnot involved in that.

---

Pretty sure they tried that and yes there are.

Mathguy64 said:

---

aTmAg said:

---

I wonder if Barca/Real can threaten to pull a tu/ou and jump to another league. Or if there are big fines and whatnot involved in that.

---

Pretty sure they tried that and yes there are.

---

Haha yep. They figured out pretty quick that no club is bigger than their domestic leagues.