The more time passes the more Sir Alex's decision makes sense (much to my shame whom I criticised). We could have had a Messi like situation with Beckham. I am glad that we nipped that early on
Lionel Messi’s Obscene Contract
- Thread starter Port Vale Devil
- Start date
I know im just worried whether Griezmann or Pjanic can make ends meet. I'm considering starting a Gofund me.
why do you say "we" aren't you a Juventus fan?
i see ... well Pjanic has a second job in a supermarket
Griezmann sucks cock for money, sad story
I don’t think the two are remotely comparable.
Well, as long as football fans are stupid enough to finance contracts like this, it is not really obscene. Until you at least stop buying pay per view and stop buying jerseys that are worth 5 £ for 90£, you have nothing to complain, really. It is the fans decision that contracts like these are possible.
Surprised (and not surprised) to notice this is 12 pages. I couldn't give less of a shit what his contract is and I've not read a thing about this.
This thread rapidly becoming Messi fans vs Messi haters.
The scale of the money paid is of course different but I can see ample comparisons. Beckham was by far the most marketable and popular player at Manchester United. We were also having problems in having him commit in long term contracts and each contract negotiation was becoming more complex then the previous one. Beckham's sale was a painful one from a marketable point of view. It was basically a crucial signing for the Galactico's brand. However it was needed
Man Utd were bought for 700m around the time Messi broke into the first team and are now worth over 3-4bn. Who is responsible for that?
To attribute and arbitrary figure Messi has brought to Barcelona is silly imo.
Shame on Messi for trying to make as much money as he can in a short career. I bet all of you would happily not sign such a contract and instead ask for a modest 2-3 million per year instead. I don't know how anyone can label him greedy it's not like he forced Barcelona to give him this contract. They agreed to this contract and he even tried to leave last season which they would not let him and forced him to earn another 130 million against his will.
I don't get why footballers are labelled as greedy and moviestars, F1 drivers, golfers, boxers, musicians all get a pass for earning similar or more money.
I don't get why footballers are labelled as greedy and moviestars, F1 drivers, golfers, boxers, musicians all get a pass for earning similar or more money.
Sure, but you are giving him too many credits for winning the CL, when he had almost missed every games/mins in knockout stages all the way to the final. I wouldn’t go as far as to say Barca didn’t win this CL without Messi, that would be an insult to Ronaldinho and Co, who had played most of the games and are the main reason of Barca winning it. Messi was only bit part player that season, no more like Blomqvist role for our treble winning season. Would you give similar amount of credits to Blomqvist for winning us the treble in 1999?
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mate, they are messi haters
have the contract said that he makes less than a half of what Ronaldo does, then they will be praising ronaldo for being the greatest and smartest player ever
haters gonna hate
But in a way the management are held hostage. Whoever lets Messi go, will be clubbed to death by the fans.
Well in that case Barcelona is not run by smart people. Barcelona was around before Messi came and it will still be around when Messi goes. If they are worred about fan backlash and not what's the best interests of Barcelona then no wonder they are in this huge mess.
what credit did i give him? i just reminded that when messi started playing for barcelona, they only had one cl trophy and with messi they won 4
barcelona, the team that had some of the greatest players ever: Ronaldo, Maradona, Cruyff, Riquelme, Rivaldo, Romario: 1 cl
and i`m pretty sure those players were top earners in their time
as i said, hater are going to hate
I was joking. But you're right. they are not run by smart people.
Well you are clearly implying Barcelona only win 1 CL without Messi, when they won 05-06 one without Messi featuring in majority of knockout stages, and with many other players contributes far more than him.
Of course you could deny that was your intention, but that would make your original post look misleading or even abit pointless.
Ronaldo fans on the other hand are perfect
The problem with Barcelona is, that they just seem to lack any kind of self-assessment.
They always preach about "Mes que un club", while they've already sold their soul to Qatar and aren't any better than any other top club. In fact, I would say they're worse than most. On top of that, their front office guys prostitute themselves (sounds harsh, but you really have to call it that way) and let one single player and his clan run their club.
Love them or hate them, but that's where Real and Bayern do a much better job by simply being ruthless/pragmatic and not losing their pride. Ronaldo demands too much money? Here, you go, sold to Juventus. Ramos wants a better contract? You sign this one, or you're out. Alaba wants wages, that don't reflect his play? Negotiations stopped, you can start looking for a new club. Ribery and Robben are past there prime, but still want to continue playing? Look guys, you're too old - no contracts for you anymore, you're gone after the season.
Messi is more closely tied to his club than those mentioned above, yes, but we're talking about an absolutely ludicrous and insane contract here. Those others are also club legends and wanted (or want) contracts, that are at least somehow explainable.
Yet they all got denied by Real/Bayern, while Barca somehow bent over and really granted Messi a contract, where he earns more than five times (!) as much as those others would've earned.
Good thing this thread is not about him then.
What I don't understand: People argue no footballer should earn that much since it is obscene. Then what should happen? Barca is obviously still making profit with him. So are you arguing that the money earned shouldn't go to the player generating it but to the club employing him? Why?
I don't get the logic behind all this. The outrage is directed towards Messi when the actual "problem" is that there's so much money in the market. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned 130m € for his role in Avengers Endgame alone. Is that unwarranted, too?
Honestly, like everyone else I believe that Barca's transfer and coaching strategy in recent years have been shambolic but they won't pay Messi so much money without ensuring he's worth it. They will have conducted the necessary market research which probably told them that they will lose more than they save by losing him. It's not unreasonable to assume he's generating at least 20% of their revenue at this point.
I don't get the logic behind all this. The outrage is directed towards Messi when the actual "problem" is that there's so much money in the market. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned 130m € for his role in Avengers Endgame alone. Is that unwarranted, too?
Honestly, like everyone else I believe that Barca's transfer and coaching strategy in recent years have been shambolic but they won't pay Messi so much money without ensuring he's worth it. They will have conducted the necessary market research which probably told them that they will lose more than they save by losing him. It's not unreasonable to assume he's generating at least 20% of their revenue at this point.
If I'm a billion quid in debt and the debt is rising and rising and rising, I would take a long look as to why I have such huge financial problems.
I'm sure you're being facetious but I'm not entirely sure what that's got to do with what I said. I wasn't suggesting Messi demanding hundreds of millions meant Griezmann got less and therefore deserves our sympathy. If anything, Messi demanding £2 million a week just means other players will also want mega money. Is it any wonder that Barcelona are currently financially fecked?
yes.. I was wondering the same thing. At first I thought the $555 was the whole amount (if 4 x 138 plus a bit of minor rounding)... but the. There’s the extra $200m in sign on and loyalty bonus mentioned, which I deduced as being ‘extra’ based on the wording.
but the only bit that’s got me doubting is why the newspaper being sensationalist would’ve have advertised $750m over 4 years.
I'm sorry Half a billion?............................ WTF
The most sensible post in this thread.
I know, I didn't say it was over a single season.
Messi's wages are obviously a massive part of the problem. Their wage bill accounts for 3/4 of their overall income! It's not a sustainable business model and the money they owe (something like $900 million) has them on the verge of bankruptcy. If Scholes had demanded obscene wages at United and the club caved, I'd be fecking pissed. Most of that anger would be directed at the club for being so fecking stupid, but I'd also be angry at Scholes for using his status to hold the club ransom to the extent that the overall health of the club was vulnerable.
I'm sorry but that stretches it quite far. Madrid gave Cristiano incredible contracts year after year, at times even higher ones than Messi's at the same point in time. Bayern employed Ribery and Robben until they hit 35. The fact that you didn't really compete for another CL title between 2013 and 2020 was also down to the fact that your two best players were half invalids who could only play 50% of the time. They weren't worth what you paid them at that time, no matter how good they were when entirely fit, and it was a huge point of criticism those days.
Obviously Bayern wouldn't pay such a huge salary but your club is very unique in that regard. You guys are managing your club very conservatively for a company of such size. It's not normal that you have zero debts, debts are usually an important part of a company's strategy and one can even argue that it's bad practice to have no debts at all (opportunity costs etc.).
Barca didn't get into the disastrous position they're in because they paid Messi so much. Messi's salary is warranted because they get more in return and this is most likely why they were so hesitant to let him go even after all that happened in the summer. They burned through their reserves by signing players for crazy amount of money and having to depreciate half of their value since they didn't perform at all.
I don't think anyone is condemning Messi for earning money.
Gross. That's all I have to say.
It depends on how much money Messi earns Barcalona. I'm not in position to say whether the details in this article are true. Another thing is that at the end of the day, the management can refuse to renew Messi's contract if they don't feel he is worth what he is demanding. He tried to force his way out last year, yet they woudn't let him go even on this contract(we assume that the details are legit). Another point about their transfer and wages is that nearly all their big money signings to replace the old guard have been flops. Most big clubs make their money from TV deals and sponsorships. How many people worldwide are going to tune in to watch Barcalona when Messi is gone? I think it's going to decrease substancially unless they are able to aquire the "next big" thing. Haaland might be that player, but all big clubs will be after him.
But yes at the end of the day I agree Messi is greedy if these contract details are true, but he's also considered by many to the best player of the modern era. He was in a position to negotiate himself a obscene contract.
https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/...for-barcelona-than-he-costs-in-wages-11489183
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First of all: As surprising as it may sound, I'm not an actual Bayern "fan". I just lived in Munich for a while and respect their work a ton (as I respect Real's work btw).
As far as I remember Bayern made four semi-finals from 2013-2019 and were really unlucky in at least two of them, so the sentence "[they] didn't really compete for another CL title between 2013 and 2020" is just wrong.
"Messi's salary is warranted because they get more in return"
But are they getting more in return? You're just assuming that they're shrewd businessmen, who surely calculated everything accordingly and really do get more in return. I for one think that the possibility of them simply being run like a banana club is at least just as likely, if you look at the recent developments, signings, contracts etc. in this club.
"Madrid gave Cristiano incredible contracts year after year, at times even higher ones than Messi's at the same point in time."
Again: That's all based on the numbers that Barcelona was communicating to the press. We now know that the actual numbers are way higher than anything Barcelona has ever said, which is why they're so shocked right now and try to sue the newspaper, that revealed it. It's safe to say that Messi always had a much more lucrative contract than Ronaldo - and Madrid still let Ronaldo walk, right after he had another great season and just won the CL with them.
It's not exactly a puzzle, isn't it? They did all kinds of accounting tricks to warrant a loan to finance Griezmann not long before the Corona crises. They didn't even have the money to realize this transfer, and then the player (expectedly) found no place in the team, becoming another pit they dumped money in. Then Covid happened and they did the desperate Arthur/Pjanic deal to gloss over the figures. It wasn't enough, obviously. They were too risky in their transfers. Tells you something that they still did everything to keep Messi at the club. Do you really think they wouldn't have sold him if they weren't convinced they'd earn more than they pay him in this situation?
I mean, they have the knowledge available. They can guess pretty accurately what kind of revenue he generates for them. We're talking about the biggest sports brand in the world right here. Think of it what you want but those players are bigger than clubs by now. You can observe it in this forum, fans nowadays support players as much as they support clubs. Messi most likely has a greater reach and infuence on buying behavior than every club out there. Same goes for Cristiano and possibly Neymar.
Messi gave the club the chance to break that contract, they refused.
The best player in the nfl
I have no issue with what Messi earns. If you were offered four or five times your current salary for your current job would you turn that down? No. You do whats best for you. Ethical dilemmas about morality are for those who already have more money then they ever need already.
As I said in a different post, Messi is the biggest sports brand in the world right now alongside Cristiano. Assuming a revenue of 3.5 bn over 5 years (700m annually), Messi's 550m equal roughly 16% of their revenue. Do you really think it's unreasonable to assume Messi is responsible for 16% of Barca's revenue? They definitely would've missed out on a few La Liga titles without him but his brand value is probably even much more important to them than his footballing contribution. Just for comparison, Messi has 181 million Instagram followers, Barcelona has 93,3 million. If those figures represent their overall reach by any means, this is nothing short of crazy.
So yes, I absolutely do believe that he earns Barca more than they pay him.
That's the problem, if they can't make money out of Messi, they probably don't deserve him and they definitely can't afford him.
Scholes has the marketability of a wet toilet paper, so its hardly a like for like comparison.