The Catalan newspaper, “El Mundo”, revealed exciting details regarding the demands it described as superstitious for Argentine star Lionel Messi to renew his contract with Barcelona during the period of former President Bartomeu.
The newspaper confirmed that it has secret files containing all of Messi’s contracts since he joined Barcelona until the moment he left the team.
She indicated that Messi at the time set imaginary conditions for Bartomeu’s management, most notably allowing him to leave the team with a penalty of 10,000 euros only, in addition to material compensation for deducting his salary during the Corona period with an interest of 3%. and a signing bonus of 10 million euros.
She added that Messi’s demands also included the provision of a private plane to transport all his family members to Argentina at Christmas, and a private room at the Camp Nou for his family and the family of his friend Suarez.
According to the leaks, Bartomeu’s management agreed to Messi’s terms, with the exception of reducing the penalty clause of 700 million euros, in addition to postponing the signing bonus, which prompted Messi’s representatives to stop the renewal negotiations.
Despite the return of negotiations between the two parties on June 11, 2020, Messi had agreed to reduce his salary by 20% in the 2020/21 season due to the Corona virus, to be refunded 10% in the 2021/202 season and another 10% in the 22/23 season in addition to 3 % interest on any deferred amount previously agreed with the club, which complicated matters between the two parties following the management rejected Messi’s terms.
Despite the departure of Bartomeu’s administration and Laporta taking the helm of the Catalan club, the latter, following reviewing the Argentine’s conditions, found that they were difficult to achieve and not in line with the new financial policy, which caused the termination of the relationship between the two parties and Messi’s departure to Paris on August 9, 2020.