Week 32: Another Fine Messi
After a summer jam-packed with 180 degree U-turns, is Lionel Messi about to make one too?
Despite what seemed a certain parting of ways, his father, fresh from a meeting with the FC Barcelona hierarchy, has hinted that his footballing genius son might see out the remaining year of his contract after all.
But this is far from the end of a saga that is complicated by so many factors – not least, money – which threatens to drag on for weeks and go around in circles more times than competitors at this year’s modified London Marathon.
So, amid all the speculation, what do we know?
We know that Messi did, and maybe still does, want out. He faxed an official request to leave to the club two days after the conclusion to this prolonged season when Barcelona finished empty-handed, relinquishing their La Liga title to arch-rivals Real, and then capping off the campaign with a torturous spanking at the hands of the eventual European champions, Bayern, by eight goals to two in Portugal.
We also know that the club turned down this request, saying that Messi was under contract and his request had arrived too late as there was a June 10 deadline for expressing this desire; a deadline what would have covered the end of the regular season had it not been extended. Messi believed that this extension meant that the June 10 date was obsolete and it was now the end of the season. Barca, and La Liga, disagreed, not surprisingly.
We know that Messi has no wish to create bad blood and is training as normal with his Barcelona team-mates while the matter is discussed between his management team (basically his Dad) and the club who are, so far, refusing to budge.
Factually, that’s about it. Last week, the papers and online columns were awash with ‘where’s Messi off to?’ stories. But a few days into the saga, ‘reliable’ TyC Sports word from Argentina was suggesting a departure is far from certain and he is now ‘90% likely to stay’ after earlier reports by Spanish media outlet, Marca, that Jorge Messi had stated his son would be on his way from the Camp Nou.
The newspapers were equally contradictory. On the BBC football gossip section on Wednesday, the top 4 snippets from various media corporations were are all Messi-centric and offer varying accounts of what happens next ranging from him considering a U-turn, to there being no agreement yet, to the club refusing to negotiate and finally to them accepting as little as €100m as a transfer fee.
It’s that fee that’s the fly in any ointment. If he really wants out, then a fee being payable drastically cuts down his options. The club insist that anyone wishing to purchase the player has to meet the contractual €700 (£620m) buy-out clause. But no club (in Europe anyway) is going to realistically pay that for a 33-year old who’s best days may be behind him and is approaching the latter stages of his career. And even if they could, none could afford to and escape FFP censure.
One of the few who might try – and who can offer Messi a fairy-tale reunion with former boss, Pep Guardiola – are Manchester City but they’ve only recently sidestepped a Champions League ban for FFP irregularities (their second offence) so it seems unlikely they would unless a fee wasn’t payable. And if that’s the case, it opens up all kinds of other possibilities.
If Messi was to try his hand at the Premier League, you sense it’s now or never. But PSG, with similar financial muscle to City, might offer him a chance to join up with Neymar again and Messi is known to have loved the first time they worked together.
Beyond that, it’s hard to get past the numbers. Manchester United were mentioned, but seem to have balked at paying over £100m for Jaden Sancho and have an abundance of young attack-minded options. Juventus and Inter have also been linked but again, FFP or simply cash flow provides an insurmountable barrier. The riches of the Far or Middle East are out there, but would mean Messi forgoing another tilt at the Champions League.
There has even been a romantic tale of him returning to Argentina and his old club, Newell’s Old Boys who – despite sounding like a team that play on Sunday mornings on a pitch that might have dog shit on it – are actually a top-flight team and not a bad one either (they were 10th when fixtures were halted although in their last game they did lose 0-2 at home to rock-bottom Godoy Cruz (which sounds like one person, never mind a crappy Sunday league side). Either way, it sounds like they might have to wait until their prodigal son has reached the end of his prime first.
That is another factor in this. No club, maybe not even Messi himself, knows exactly what’s left in the tank. The days when he wins games by himself (4 goals versus Arsenal spring to mind) seem to be over, and the way that Liverpool steamrollered him and Barca in the 2018/19 Champions League semi-final, as well as the Bayern debacle last month, suggested that his influence in the really big games is already on the wane.
Which makes it slightly risky for any club throwing unaffordable money in the form of a transfer fee or wages, or for Barcelona to pass up an opportunity to get millions for him now. Even though Messi joined the club while still a child, and helped them win countless honours and doesn’t owe them anything, he might also reflect that after such a fantastic career, hopping off mid-Covid when fans can’t get to say goodbye might tarnish his image more than he’d prefer.
But another year is one less elsewhere and if he yearns for a fresh challenge, it might also be too long to wait. As well as the clubs mentioned, other, much smaller teams inevitably threw their hat in the ring all the same. Burton Albion and Port Vale to highlight two, although even those outside of the league had a go as well. You suspect that the wages – even if he was available for free – might prove problematic though. Although you also sense he might, just might, be comfortable enough by now to do whatever he wants to and not have to check his current account balance.
In fact, the numbers surrounding Messi do seem a little grotesque full stop, especially in a world facing potential financial meltdown and multiple recessions. Not the fault of the player himself, of course, and he is arguably the GOAT, to steal some tennis parlance, but they are mind boggling. Even more so for a 33-year old although someone will no doubt point out that shirt sales alone will cover most of anyone’s outlay.
The €700m buy-out is outrageously high in itself but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the amounts bandied about make British Airways current single fare from Athens sound like a good deal.
His weekly wage is reported to be £500,000 net and one of the stronger rumours circulating was that Manchester City were proposing a move that would see Messi play for them and then, sister club, New York City, in a deal worth $450m to the player over 5 seasons! According to The Times, Messi’s decision to rethink his future is based on a £63m loyalty bonus he is due should he stay until the end of his current contract which expires at the end of the upcoming season.
But his stats are equally outrageous. Since moving to Catalonia as a 13-year-old in 2001 (he made his debut in 2004), he has played more than 700 games and scored an incredible 634 goals, all the more remarkable when considering that he’s never been an out-and-out striker.
It’s why any club with the means would want him and why Barcelona are seemingly reluctant to let him go. But even so, there’s more at play beneath the surface. It’s about politics too. Spanish sports journalist, Guillum Balague, wrote in his BBC sport column that Josep Maria Bartomeu clearly does not want to be the Barcelona president who lets Messi go. He goes on to accuse him of not putting the club’s interests first because ‘as things stand, he plans to keep an unhappy player who does not want to be there and who can go for free in 12 months.’
It is a point worth making. While fighting to retain Messi’s services seems sensible for the club, if it is for one year and without him signing a new contract, then it’s also potentially financial mis-management. While anywhere near €700m feels unfeasible, getting a few hundred million for a player who wants to leave and will in twelve months, sounds more sensible; with the debt at the club currently in the hundreds of millions then even more so.
After the 8-2 thumping by Bayern and appointment of club legend, Ronald Koeman, on a two-year deal to try and turn the ship around, it might be as good a time as any to cash in and rebuild with the proceeds. But Koeman doesn’t want to lose one of the world’s best players any more than President Bartomeu does. Or so he says.
Balague’s informed opinion is that ‘at some point we’ll enter the agreement phase. You can’t guess what happens’ but he thinks Messi WILL leave. If he is right, then it is only the when that needs to be decided. Although Koeman isn’t going to let him ‘rot in the reserves’ – a punishment handed to some wantaway players – he might find it hard to build a team around a player on borrowed time. Balague also points to the other players at the club who might actually flourish in Messi’s absence; among them Frenkie de Jong, Miralem Pjanic, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho.
After almost 20 years of service, and those appearances and goal tallies, it seems unlikely there will be too much of an appetite for a public spat and bitter battle through the courts, so if he is adamant about plying his trade elsewhere, a compromise of €250-€350m and letting him go with their blessing, and a farewell match when stadiums reopen, might suit all parties.
Except maybe the clubs he doesn’t end up at.
With Premier League champions, Liverpool, ruling themselves out of the running due to the astronomical costs, their full back and Scotland captain, Andy Robertson, summed up the feelings of – no doubt – many players in the Premier League, worried that the potential GOAT would significantly improve any team he plays for. ‘If he’s not coming here, I hope he stays at Barca’ he said.
Ronald Koeman, Josep Maria Bartomeu and millions of Catalonians might well hope he is right.
FC Barcelona’s accountant might beg to differ.
words Darren Young, D3D4 columnist