• Exclusive EL MUNDO Leo Messi's pharaonic contract that ruins Barcelona

  • The future of Messi Messi looks at PSG: "They do what they want with financial Fair Play"

There was a moment during the long negotiations that Joan Laporta and his squire Rafael Yuste had with the patriarch Jorge Messi when the parties were convinced that it was best to separate their paths as soon as possible.

The one who ended up taking the lead in the rupture was the president of Barcelona, ​​once he was warned that the viability of the club could be in serious danger, and after confirming that there would no longer be any way to lower the renewal agreement previously agreed with Messi - five seasons in exchange for about 200 million euros, no matter how much he only made sure to play the first two as a Barça player.

"The very survival of Barça happened because Messi left," one of the club's executives assumed crudely to this newspaper.

The Argentine, in any case and before his departure was made official, he had already confessed to a fellow wardrobe that the best thing was his departure.

Laporta dared to make one of the decisions that will go down in club history.

Messi will be able to prepare for the World Cup in Qatar at a club that will ensure his last great contract.

The PSG of Neymar and Mauricio Pochettino, of course, leads the bid.

The management of the board of directors chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu left Barça mortally wounded.

This must be confirmed by the audit with which the Laporta board of directors will claim responsibilities from the previous managers.

Probably in court.

The erratic policy with which they tried to compensate for the escape of Neymar to PSG - replaced by Coutinho and Dembélé, the most expensive signings in the club's history - was the beginning of the end of an apparently free phase of shocks.

The balance of the 2020-21 season will show losses of 487 million euros, five times more than the 97.3 million lost in the 2019-20 campaign.

That tremendous hole, together with the high chips of the highest paid squad in world sport, LaLiga salary limits and the rejection of the agreement with the CVC fund help explain the outcome, unexpected just a few weeks ago.

Giving up Messi was the only way to try to stop the bleeding.

Last Wednesday, this end was already crystalline.

For all.

Telephone contacts between Joan Laporta and Jorge Messi were constant.

The break was brewing.

But there was still a final and tense disagreement.

There was even an ugly moment of tension with the footballer's father.

Both parties assumed in the end that it was best to part their ways.

Thus, the player would have time to take the pulse of a market that has always been very present and the club, meanwhile, could address the adjustments to register Memphis Depay, Kun Agüero, Eric García and Emerson Royal with a little more margin.

If Messi had continued, the salary bill would have accounted for 110% of income.

Without it, it still reaches an unaffordable 95%.

The ratios indicate that it should be between 65% and 70%.

Therefore, it is still essential that the highest paid accept a generous reduction in their emoluments.

They are reticent.

Real Madrid, for example, managed to get its players to give up 10% of their chip.

Bartomeu, meanwhile, only managed to have the payment deferred, adding more years of the contract to those already agreed.

Inherited write-offs also became a tremendous drag.

Another one.

So much so that even the 500 million euro bailout agreed with Goldman Sachs could no longer be a sufficient lifeline.

As much as LaLiga's agreement with CVC was proposed by the body chaired by Javier Tebas, as Laporta pointed out, as the philosopher's stone to keep Messi at the club, the conditions collided with his idea.

Both for the 40-year duration of the mortgage and for its economic value.

From his point of view, the real value should be triple the agreed 2.7 billion euros.

In addition, he understands that Thebes intends to decapitate the Super League.

Something that Laporta does not intend to give up either.

The Argentine, from the end of the competition, did not make any gesture towards the gallery to erase any suspicion about his intentions with a stroke of the pen.

After winning the Copa América, he focused on his vacations, during which he shared snapshots with his inseparable Luis Suárez and, also, with several PSG footballers, among whom were his friends Di María and Neymar.

An image that, at the time, seemed innocent and that may now be the prelude to what will be his next football reality.

Meanwhile, Barça, already without its totem, will have to continue squeezing the numbers not to be able to compete, but to simply survive.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Neymar

  • Joan Laporta

  • Luis Suarez

  • Javier Tebas

  • Real Madrid

  • Ousmane Dembélé

  • Coutinho

  • Josep Maria Bartomeu

  • HBPR

Soccer Now what?

The possible destinations of Messi

FútbolLeo Messi closes his stage at Barcelona

FútbolMessi: a contract made on its knees to take Barça from glory to ruin

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