Barcelona Announces Lionel Messi Will Leave Club Due to Financial Challenges
Barcelona FC has announced that Lionel Messi’s time with the Club has come to an end as a result of financial challenges.
The team tweeted on Thursday that Messi will not continue with the club after it was thought he had a new deal to remain with the team.
It was reported Messi agreed to a new five-year deal to remain with Barcelona in July, but financial issues and various financial-related challenges with the club prevented that agreement from getting officially done.
In its statement, the team said the deal could not be completed due to “financial and structural obstacles [Spanish Liga regulations].”
Under La Liga rules, Barcelona would have had to cut roughly $200 million in salary to retain Messi, according to The New York Times. That was an unrealistic figure, and the only way Barcelona was going to keep Messi was if La Liga granted the team an exception. La Liga’s chief executive Javier Tebas said in July that wasn’t going to happen.
The move could prove damaging to La Liga, as Messi is a huge draw. This is an interesting point. La Liga’s value as a television product, which is where most of the money is, surely drops significantly without Messi — and with Ronaldo and Neymar long gone. The same goes for sponsorship.
“FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life.”
Messi has spent his entire career with Barcelona, scoring 464 goals with the club over 17 seasons. Messi, 34, should draw significant interest now that he’s back on the market.
Lionel “Leo” Andrés Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for and captains the Argentina national team
