The football world has been rocked by a statement from FC Barcelona, announcing that Lionel Messi will not be signing a new contract with the Catalan club.
They blamed this on ‘financial obstacles’ – which is understood to mean their inability to meet the Spanish League’s financial fair play requirement.
Photo via Getty
Simply put, Barca need to slash 200m euros off their wage bill before they’re allowed to register Messi or any other new players – something they have yet to do.
According to sources, both Barca and Messi had already agreed on a contract extension, with both parties on the verge of putting pen to paper.
The Argentine went as far as to take a 50% pay cut to move the deal through, but even this was apparently not enough for Barca to sort out their finances.
What does this mean for Messi?
First off, it must be noted that Messi is currently a free agent. His earlier Barca contract expired in July, meaning he is now free to join any club without them needing to pay a transfer fee.
But his salary (conservatively estimated to be around 127 million USD a year) will be a massive stumbling block to any potential transfer.
Realistically, only two clubs can even come close to affording Messi – Man City and PSG.
However, City does not appear to be a likely destination at the moment, given the Premier League champions have just spent 100 million pounds to sign Jack Grealish and are still in talks to sign Tottenham’s Harry Kane – another expensive target.
This leaves PSG the only candidate, with some sources saying Messi is already in talks with the French giants.
A twist to the story
Photo via Reuters
In spite of the gloomy outlook for the player, there are some sources in Spain who believe this is not the end of the Barcelona-Messi relationship.
A growing number of observers believe La Liga will be pressured into scrapping its salary cap regulations, for fear of losing the league’s biggest attraction and most valuable asset.
Others feel there is still time remaining during the current transfer window for Barca to move some players out, to free up space on the wage bill for Messi.
But if it turns out that Messi and Barca do end up parting ways, it will truly mark the end of an era.
By: Nicholas Darren John
