"I offered to lower my salary by 50%. I tried everything." Lionel Messi has, he says, tried everything to stay at FC Barcelona. But the six-time Ballon d'Or winner, after 21 years in Catalonia, bid farewell to his beloved club at a press conference on Sunday. He explained that he had done his utmost, as had the club and its president Joan Laporta, to continue in the Blaugrana shirt. But due to the rules of La Liga, this was not possible. Even if Messi had, hypothetically, decided to play for free for the club he was playing for, he would have been unable to do so. "likes.
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La Liga regulations impose a sort of salary cap. A club's wage bill must not exceed 70% of its turnover. In Barça's case, however, and according to the figures given by president Joan Laporta himself on Friday, the sum of Barcelona's wages currently represents... 95% of the club's turnover. Add Messi, and the figure rises to 110%!
BARCELONA PAYS FOR ITS DISASTROUS MANAGEMENT
The Blaugrana are therefore banned from registering any new players. According to several Spanish sources, they have still not validated the contracts of their summer recruits Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia, Emerson Royal and Sergio Agüero. As Messi's lease expired this summer, he would also have been considered a new player. It would therefore be impossible for the Argentinian to renew his contract, unless Barça had cut almost 200 million euros from their wage bill this summer. Mission impossible.
Barcelona are paying for their disastrous management in recent years. Messi's most recent contract, worth almost €575 million, was obviously a factor. So did the club's recent spending spree (Coutinho at €145 million, Dembélé at €130 million, Griezmann at €120 million). According to Laporta, Barça lost nearly €475 million last year and are now just over €1 billion in debt. An untenable situation that precipitated the loss of the best player in the club's history - or in history, for that matter.
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