Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, had his contract released to the public by El Mundo. The report confirmed that the Argentine legend had made well over 500 million euros since he signed the contract back in 2017. The contract is the biggest one in sports history and everyone in the community was quite shocked. However, although his wages might be insane, Messi is still bringing in a good amount of profit to the club.
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Marc Ciria, a Barca socio, and CEO of Diagonal Investments has found out just exactly how much money the club legend brings in for Barcelona. He did this with the help of Josep Fabra, a financier, and Ivan Cabeza, an economist. Together they have managed to find Messi’s value to the club and to no one’s surprise, the player brings in much more than he is paid. The player made 383,655,000 euros over the 3 years but he has generated 619,265,000 euros in the same time period. This means that the player has made the club a profit of 235,610,000 euros.
Lionel Messi single-handedly makes the club 30 percent of their total revenue so it was no wonder that Josep Bartomeu did not want to let him go. According to Ciria, Messi’s goal scoring abilities have made it very profitable to sponsor the club. It is instant recognition for the brand. However, there are two options for sponsors, one without the player and one including him. The Messi clause can bump the sponsorship total by 50 percent. Apart from that, the player also makes the club a ton of money through ticketing, VIP passes, and shirt sales. Ciria suggests that eight out of 10 Barcelona shirts carry his name.
The 33-year-old is crucial for the economic recovery of the club as unlike players like Neymar, he is making the club a lot of money. Ciria stated that Neymar costs more to PSG than Messi to Barca and his goal-scoring is also worse than the Argentine. At the end of the day, Lionel Messi is an investment but even Ciria admitted that the club cannot pay such fees in this situation. His fees will have to be deducted by almost 50 percent but if they can keep him, he can bring the club back on its feet.