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Barcelona presidential candidate Emili Rousaud has warned the Catalan giants that Lionel Messi’s current salary is unsustainable amid uncertainty over the captain’s future at the Camp Nou.
Rousaud is the club’s former vice-president but is in the running to take over from departed chief Josep Maria Bartomeu when the club holds presidential elections on January 24.
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Messi’s Salary ‘Cannot be Sustained’
One of the first issues the new club president will have to deal with is Messi’s future, with the captain out of contract at the end of the season. Rousaud has told Spanish newspaper AS that if the 33-year-old is to stay he will have to accept a reduced salary.
Obviously, with the actual situation at the club Messi’s salary cannot be sustained. It’s unsustainable. An agreement would need to be reached. The project which we will present to him is an attractive one.
What matters here is the sport project. When Messi said he was leaving, he didn’t say it was to do with money. He is the highest-paid footballer in the world, no one earns more than he does. He didn’t want to leave because he doesn’t earn enough, he wanted to leave because he wants to win trophies. He said so at the time: “we aren’t going to win anything”. He wants to play for a team where there is talent.
Messi is believed to earn a weekly wage of €565,000 ($610,000) at the Camp Nou, according to Goal. The Argentine also earns approximately $35m annually through his various sponsorship deals.
Rousaud Talks Potential Signings
Rousaud also offered his thoughts on potential signings he could make if he is elected in January. The presidential candidate admits he’s been in touch with Neymar over a possible return.
We have been in contact with Neymar’s people and he made comments which someone interpreted as meaning he wants Messi to join him in Paris – what Neymar was saying is that he wants to come back to Barcelona – like he said in the summer of 2019. Right now, we cannot pay his transfer fee so it will be at the end of his contract.
Neymar’s contract at Paris Saint-Germain in 2022, meaning Barcelona would have to wait another two years if they seriously want to bring the Brazilian back on a free transfer.
Yet PSG could choose to extend Neymar’s existing contact before then. President Nasser al-Khelaifi has told RMC that his club have held talks with the Brazilian over extending his deals and are “very confident” of success, as reported by The Guardian.
Neymar joined PSG on a five-year deal from Barcelona in 2022 but has regularly been linked with a return. The 28-year-old will come up against his former team for the first time since his move on the pitch in February when the two teams meet in the Champions League last 16.
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