During an interview with Sport, one of Barcelona’s board members dubbed Leo Messi’s contract extension a ‘poisoned gift’ when they rejected it.
Leo Messi’s contract extension would have probably been one of the most harmful decisions FC Barcelona would’ve made in recent memory. The Argentine star was fresh out of taking around €750 million from the club in the last decade. With that money, the Blaugrana could’ve prevented all the economic hardships they are suffering today. But Leo and his family only saw for themselves by accepting all those extensions from Josep Maria Bartomeu.
There are many board members who had been pushing for Messi’s exit for years because they understood the situation. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, the club decided to let Messi leave the club he had been representing for nearly two decades. In fact, president Joan Laporta didn’t go to extreme measures in order to keep him. Whereas other presidents would have probably done the impossible to convince Leo that staying was his best option. Every single scenario led to his imminent departure, sooner or later.
Messi was a ‘poisoned gift’.
Let’s say Messi would’ve been able to stay at the club. There were reports suggesting he was willing to give up to a €75 million per annum salary in order to remain at FC Barcelona. But the reality is that Messi only accepted to stay if the same money was paid to him over the course of nearly a decade. However, he would only play for two seasons and then go to the MLS. Vice president Eduard Romeu revealed details of the negotiations between the player and the club through an interview on Sport.
When asked if the Messi family broke the previous agreement, he said: “Those suggestions are not true. First, because we do not have that power. It was an operation that as a club we could not afford, it did not fit into our economic structure. La Liga gave us the option to do it with the CVC contract, yes, but it was a poisoned gift that from the economic area we recommend to the club that we should not accept. The institution was put at risk and the president already said that no one could be above the club. This was the right decision.”
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