The painful reason why FC Barcelona is still paying Leo Messi

Three years have passed since Leo Messi left FC Barcelona, yet the Spanish club still owes their former star a large check. FC Barcelona has a serious financial debt that they still have outstanding with the Argentine, much like a mortgage weighing down the club, capping its ability to grow financially.

But, how is it possible that the Catalan entity continues paying the 'Pulga' after so much time? To explain this situation, we would have to go back, to 2017, when he signed his last contract with Barcelona, which according to the newspaper El Mundo amounted to €555 million (£470m/$569m) for four seasons.

These 138 million per season were divided into fixed payment blocks. With all this, Messi had a net salary of €71 million (£60m/$76m) per year at FC Barcelona, an agreement he reached with Josep María Bartomeu.

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However, everything changed with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Barcelona suffered serious financial setbacks and saw Leo Messi terminate his contract.

To renew his contract, Laporta had managed to convince Lionel Messi to reduce his salary by half (35 million), according to AS, so that they could comply with the spending rule and financial fair play, but even so, they could not prevent the Argentine from leaving for PSG on a free transfer.

FC Barcelona owed the Rosario-born forward €52 million (£44.1m/$59m) in 2021 but due to his sudden departure to PSG, the club deferred the payments to help the club's finances. Nevertheless, he is set to receive installments until 2025, according to Sport.

According to another medium, Crónica Global, the exact amount that Messi agreed to defer with the Barça board amounted to €47.67 million (£39m/$50m).

The amount would be paid following deadlines that coincided with the months of December 2021, June 2022, December 2022, June 2023, December 2023, June 2024, December 2024, and June 2025. Eight instalments, in which Messi would receive €5.95 million (£5m/$6.3m) for each of them (not counting the variables).

The precarious economic situation of the Catalan club cannot be understood one hundred percent without taking into account this deferral of the payment of its players' contracts during the pandemic (127.1 million in total), as is the case of Messi, high-profile players like this have been a burden, according to journalist Adrià Soldevila on Cadena SER.

In an interview with the newspaper La Vanguardia, in the summer of 2023, Joan Laporta confirmed the news that the press had been publishing: "What is owed to him is the deferral of the salary bill that was agreed with the previous board and that produces payments pending that end in 2025".

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The culé president assured that Messi was receiving and would continue to receive all his payments, paying them "religiously", but he surprised everyone when he assured that he wanted to incorporate him back into the Barça squad that same summer, the same summer in which he would end up signing for Inter Miami.

"We had an agreement with La Liga that we would dedicate part of the resources we have to Messi. It was contemplated within the viability plan. We communicated it to Jorge Messi. He told me that Leo had spent a very difficult year in Paris and that he wanted less pressure.

Messi himself confessed that there were contacts, but nothing serious: "A proposal was passed over, but never a formal, written, signed proposal, because there was nothing yet and we didn't know if it was going to be possible or not. (…) Many things were missing. The club was not in a position to assure me 100% that I could return," he said, according to RTVE.

In January 2024, La Liga announced the clubs' updated salary limits after the winter transfer market, noting that Barça's limit was set at €204 million (£172m/$219m) (down from 270 million). According to UEFA's staff spending numbers, the club's expenses exceeded €300 million (£254/$322m), making it the second highest in Europe with a wage bill of €505 million (£428m/$542m), after PSG.

They also explain the problems that Barça faces in incorporating new players to strengthen the squad. The club must adhere to La Liga's so-called 1x1 rule, which stipulates that for every euro a club saves on its salary bill, it can only spend one euro on new signings.

Until Barcelona achieves a positive balance in this regard, their investment can only reach 30%, and at best, 50%. This issue will be alleviated after the summer of 2025, when players like Lionel Messi, who are currently with other clubs, finish collecting their outstanding debts.

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