- 9 hours ago
The €240m 10-year contract Barcelona will offer to keep Lionel Messi at the club
Stefan Bienkowski
- 29 May 2021 11:17 BST
- 5 min read
Barcelona hope to entice Lionel Messi into committing his long-term future to the club by offering him a contract worth €240 million that will keep him tied to the Catalan side for the next 10 years.
“Messi’s renewal is going well. It is not done, but it is going well,” Barcelona president Joan Laporta said on Friday and according to reports in Spain it could lead to the Argentine earning a huge amount of money over the coming years.
According to Spanish newspaper Sport and broadcasters TV3, Messi is set to be offered a 10-year deal that would see the player continue playing for Barcelona for the next two seasons.
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That would mean the famous No.10 will play his last game for the Spanish giants at the end of the 2022/23 season when he’s 35.
At that point, Messi will then join David Beckham’s MLS side Inter Miami on a two-year contract, all while still remaining a club ambassador for Barcelona while playing in the United States.
It will be over the course of these four seasons in Spain and the US that Barca will, reportedly, pay Messi his €240m salary.
After that, Messi will then return from Inter Miami and take on a new role at Barca after finally hanging up his boots. Which is believed to be a “global ambassador” role for the Catalan club.
Could Messi still leave Barcelona this summer?
While it remains to be seen whether Barcelona will in fact offer this remarkable deal to Messi and if he’ll accept it, there are grounds for Barca fans to grow hopeful of their star staying put this summer.
Following a flurry of stories linking Messi to moves to Paris Saint-Germain in France or Manchester City in England, the transfer saga has gone completely cold with no one from Messi’s camp seemingly suggesting a move is imminent.
Similarly, the arrival of close friend Sergio Aguero in the summer is surely a clear sign that Messi is more than likely to stay put and continue his career in Spain next season.
