PSG Announce Lionel Messi Transfer On £1m-a-Week Contract

Lionel Messi arrived in Paris on Wednesday and agreed a deal worth over £1 million-a-week.

The Argentina forward, 34, approved a two-year contract with Paris St-Germain worth £53.8 million per season before tax deductions are made, with an option to stay on for the 2023-24 campaign.

Messi, who has taken the No 30 shirt at PSG, will also receive a sizeable signing-on bonus for joining as a free agent after La Liga’s financial “obstacles” prevented him signing a new deal with Barcelona after an agreement was reached last week.

His contract at the Nou Camp, which has been a feature of Barca’s financial meltdown, was worth €555 million (£470million) over four years, leaked documents to Spanish newspaper El Mundo revealed earlier this year, but his basic salary will now be eclipsed by his gross PSG wages.

Messi, the greatest player in the world as the Ballon d’Or holder, will speak today at a press conference when his new deal is expected to be confirmed. His final public address in Barcelona was over the weekend, when he tearfully said goodbye to the club where he spent 21 years, winning the Champions League four times and 10 La Liga titles.

PSG forward Neymar used his social-media accounts to show he expected to be reunited with his team-mate from Barca. Messi’s father Jorge, who is also his agent, confirmed his son would join PSG when asked by reporters at Barcelona’s El Prat airport.

Messi will also keep his position as the world’s highest-paid player, earning more than Juventus’s Cristiano Ronaldo per week, while Forbes calculates him to earn more than any player when sponsorship, image rights and endorsements are taken into account.

Even when accepting a 50 per cent reduction in salary at Barca, the club could not satisfy the wage cap imposed by Spanish football authorities. La Liga has recently agreed a deal worth £2.3 billion to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, to provide a cash injection, although “obstacles” to the Messi deal prevented it from being completed.

The CVC deal has been the backdrop to Messi’s departure and Real Madrid also announced they would launch lawsuits over the deal that will involve the private equity company getting a 10 per cent share of future La Liga television rights.

Real say that they will begin civil and criminal action against La Liga president Javier Tebas and CVC Capital Partners’ chief Javier de Jaime Guijarro.

La Liga’s loss has been Ligue 1’s gain. PSG fans gathered at the club’s Parc des Princes home to welcome Messi, while others tried to glimpse the Ballon d’Or holder at Le Bourget Airport in the north of Paris.

Pictures emerged of Messi and his family flying from Barcelona and he waved to fans on his arrival, wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan “Here Is Paris”.

Later, Messi was taken by car – with a police escort – to the American Hospital in Paris, where he underwent a medical. After that was completed, he was taken to the Royal Monceau Hotel, where he again emerged onto a balcony to wave at fans who had gathered in the street outside.

From there, he went to Parc des Princes to conduct his first photoshoot for the club, posing in his new kit and doing keepie-ups on the pitch as he was filmed by a camera crew.

PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino will be in charge of those three attackers who will be expected to help the club make a challenge for the Champions League and at the very least regain the Ligue 1 title they lost to Lille last year.

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, defenders Achraf Hakimi and Sergio Ramos and midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum have also arrived at the club this summer.

Last year, Messi was involved in a battle with Barcelona over leaving before announcing that he would stay. He thought that he was free to leave last summer under the terms of his contract stating he had to tell the club his intentions by June 10, but the season was still going due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Barca stood firm and insisted he would only be allowed to leave for his £625 million release clause, with Messi opting to stay rather than going to court, only to be informed that he could not renew his deal last week.