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Lionel Messi's salary at Barcelona revealed: $673.919.104 in 4 years

eebster

eebster

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,596
Spain's El Mundo somehow got a hold of Messi's contract and leaked it in todays newspaper. Dude gets paid 555 million Euros in 4 years. Which amounts to 670 million Dollars. As a comparison, the biggest contract in NBA history is 260 million in 6 years. And his team Barcelona is in a huge financial crisis right now as well, in part because of Messi's salary obviously. Is this the biggest contract in sports history?
This is only the salary from his team too, doesn't even include income from endorsements. Dude is filthy rich

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I guess Forbes didn't have the actual numbers cause he was only at #3 in their top paid athletes list of 2020. He would actually be getting paid double the amount of Federer, just insane

Forbes 2020
 
Joni

Joni

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,508
The number itself isn't new, they're just publishing it to show how big an impact it has on Barcelona's losses. Good luck to Manchester City though if they want him.
 
CarbonCrush

CarbonCrush

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,132
Fuck!!!!!

So, effectively, in lifetime earnings, endorsements, and paying little to no tax, it's pretty certain Messi is a billionaire?
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,171
I saw the decimal at the end and originally thought "673k in 4 years isn't that much for someone that famous."

Oops. Off by three zeroes.
 

DeltaRed

Member
Apr 27, 2018
5,746
If football clubs are making ridiculous sums then the players should be taking the lion share, and Messi has been more important in the past 15 years than any other player for that club. Though in this particular case I'm not sure Barca can actually afford it.
 
345

345

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,356
goddamn. imagine what NBA players would make without the salary cap.

always seemed ironic to me that european sports are basically hardcore free-market capitalism run wild while american sports operate with bargaining agreements and what essentially amounts to redistribution of wealth
 
weekev

weekev

Is this a test?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,213
Wouldn't surprise me to find out it wasn't even the top contract in football. Neymar and Ronaldo will be on similar contracts. Folks have to remember football (soccer) is the most popular sport in the world.
 
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eebster

eebster

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,596
DeltaRed said:
If football clubs are making ridiculous sums then the players should be taking the lion share, and Messi has been more important in the past 15 years than any other player for that club. Though in this particular case I'm not sure Barca can actually afford it.
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I'm all for players getting the lion share of the income instead of owners, but yeah Barca is on the brink of bankruptcy. But when the GOAT of the sport came from your own academy and you raised him since he was like 10 and he has a god status among your fans, good lucking not giving him the contract he wants and telling the fans "Yeah sorry, couldn't afford Messi, he's going to our rival". The fans would revolt. They were basically forced to accept whatever Messi demanded.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Lua said:
Any brazillian kid as well.
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Yeah, I'm assuming any country where soccer / football is insanely big and has very prominent players. Argentina is probably another one.

It's a self-reinforcing loop, of course. Countries where every kid grows up dreaming to be a soccer star will have insane competition and end up producing the best players in the world. Again, same as with rock stars or indie developers. :)
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,075
I just want to point out that the target revenue for 2020 (before you know Covid) for Barca was their GREATEST EVER at 1.047B€. That would mean that during that year, Messi would get 13% of the total revenue of Barca. Which would mean even more ridiculously high %s in the previous years, and in the year of the contract signing (with the extra 100M€).

And Barca is not only a football club, it has a ton of other sports.

CarbonCrush said:
Fuck!!!!!

So, effectively, in lifetime earnings, endorsements, and paying little to no tax, it's pretty certain Messi is a billionaire?
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Messi pays tax, its just that Barca pays the tax for him in the salary (so his salary is higher, as he negotiates the after tax amount and Barca deals with the tax mess). I think that was their deal after Messi got slapped for tax evasion.
 
Jisgsaw

Jisgsaw

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Oct 27, 2017
3,353
Wait, is that just salary, or also including all advertising and partnership deals?
Because the latter is more or less what I expected, but if it is the former, holy shit!
 
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eebster

eebster

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,596
Jisgsaw said:
Wait, is that just salary, or also including all advertising and partnership deals?
Because the latter is more or less what I expected, but if it is the former, holy shit!
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Nope just salary. Only the money he gets paid from his team. Anything else like endorsements, ads etc. isn't included
But it's his total income from Barcelona in 4 years, not just his yearly salary. The sum includes a ridiculious signing fee of €115,225,000 and a "loyalty bonus" of €77,929,955
 
Hootie

Hootie

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Dec 25, 2017
1,330
No human being deserves that much money in such a short amount of time, let alone for playing a sport. On the other hand, Messi is the GOAT and has made the club so much goddamn money and given them so much success since he's been there so I'm not surprised to see him make fucking bank like this.
 

Daverytimes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,108
If football clubs released salaries like NBA teams do, people would appreciate more just the scale of money involved in Football.
 
Uzzy

Uzzy

Gabe’s little helper
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Oct 25, 2017
27,067
Hull, UK
That is a considerable amount of money.

This getting leaked is also clearly the Barca board trying to fuck over Messi, which is certainly amusing to watch. From a distance, of course.
 
Bobson Dugnutt

Bobson Dugnutt

Self Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,052
Barca were insane not cutting him loose last summer. Obviously he was the remaking of the team in the 00s, but he could end up being a millstone with their debt issues
 
Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider

Member
Oct 27, 2017
855
I remember on NPR a few years back they were talking about spending and salaries of sports teams and how everyone talks about teams like the Yankees or Red Sox but they pale in comparison to euro football
 
Anomander

Anomander

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Oct 27, 2017
1,469
He has helped Barca make a fuck ton more money than that and like everyone else at the team has negotiated to cut his salary during this year.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,075
Devil said:
No, the 555 mil € is before tax.

This is not the whole volume of that contract though. He got an additional and immediate bonus of 115 mil plus a 78 mil loyalty bonus.
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And 555 mil € is only the base salary of the 4 years. There are bonus money in each year!
 
Milennia

Milennia

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Oct 25, 2017
18,254
Puts LeBrons contract to shame but different systems etc.
 
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eebster

eebster

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Nov 2, 2017
1,596
Ghost Rider said:
I remember on NPR a few years back they were talking about spending and salaries of sports teams and how everyone talks about teams like the Yankees or Red Sox but they pale in comparison to euro football
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Not really. You have like a handful of superstars that are getting paid a huge ton of money like Messi or Neymar. And then the "regular" superstars are getting paid peanuts compared to the top american athletes. This years player of the year Robert Lewandowski gets 20 million. Freaking Buddy Hield is getting paid more than that. 52 other players in the NBA as well. And we're talking about basically Soccer's MVP here
 
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