Monday’s payment will formally end all financial ties between Barcelona and Messi
Barcelona are preparing to send Lionel Messi a payment on Monday to finally clear the financial debt the club owe him.
The Catalan giants will transfer around €5.95m to Messi as part of an agreement made during the peak of their financial crisis, which saw the club forced to negotiate deferred salary deals with several senior players.
According to reports from Spain, this payment represents the last instalment of a €47.6 million debt that accumulated during Messi’s final years at the Camp Nou.
The payment is expected on 30 June, at the end of Barcelona’s financial year. The club will also make similar payments to other players who were part of the squad during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the period that left the club on the brink of economic collapse.
Messi, now 38 and playing for Inter Miami in the United States, left Barcelona in the summer of 2021 but still had financial ties with the club. Monday’s payment will formally close that relationship. Barcelona have already honoured the bulk of their deferred wage obligations to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, according to Sport, which reports that the club have remained consistent in meeting payment schedules negotiated during the height of its financial troubles.
Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba – both of whom are playing alongside Messi in Miami – have similar deferred salary arrangements with Barcelona. In total, the Catalan club are expected to pay out approximately €16m in deferred wages to former players.
Also included in this round of repayments are six other former squad members, among them Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho, two of the most expensive signings in the club’s history and neither of whom lived up to expectations in Catalonia.
A number of current Barcelona players, including Ronald Araujo, Pedri, Ansu Fati and Iñaki Peña, also accepted delayed payment terms, but the sums owed are reportedly far smaller.
