Catalan media mogul and one of the investors in Barca Studios Jaume Roures has claimed that Barcelona’s decision to let Lionel Messi’s contract expire and withdraw their renewal offer was not exclusively down to financial reasons.
In August of 2021, Messi flew back from his holidays to sign a new deal with Barcelona, and after being told that Barcelona could not do a deal, gave a tearful farewell press conference. He would sign with Paris Saint-Germain the following week, in one of the most painful episodes in Barcelona history.
Roures has told Cadena SER that it was not only the fact that Barcelona could not register his contract within their salary limit, but also due to ‘personal reasons’ that he did not re-sign – ‘and I wouldn’t put my neck on the line to say which was more important’. Roures says that Messi’s camp had urged the Blaugrana to make signings in spite of their financial plight.
“They told Barcelona that they had to sign and there were people who didn’t take it well. They took it as misplaced pressure and that clash that ended up favouring a departure due to sporting demands and the signings.”
Nevertheless, Messi was convinced that he was signing a new contract with the Blaugrana when he returned to the city, while it was not the case.
Even if there were those within the club that did not appreciate the way Messi’s camp went about things, without the ability to register his contract, it would remain somewhat redundant. It does continue a line of reporting in Messi’s later years at Barcelona painting him as a burden on the club, both in terms of his financial package, and his influence on the decision-makers at the club. An idea that has been fiercely contested of course.
voabeimos
543
Yes he was right because he knew what Bacelona can do they can go and sign a good midfielder but they will never sign a good defender Messi has suffered in the hands of bad defenders in Barcelona 🔥🔥🔥
putimopruy
256
It was a win for Messi. If Messi had remained in Barcelona he would not have won the world cup because of the heavy burden of barca he was carrying. Barca and psg helped Messi win world cup, at psg the burden were shared among Messi, Mbappe and Naymer which gave opportunity to Messi to arrive world cup in best state and we all saw what he did to help Argentina.
Shark-V
213
damn idiotic Barca management! Messi deserved a proper sent off front of all the fans!
TeddyBarclay
107
We have moved on, And only fools would believe that it wasn’t purely financial, we can’t even register our signing right now how is it we could have Renew Messi?