Laporta admits Barcelona still OWE Messi money

Tom Weber

• Updated: 4 Jul 2023 07:06 BST
• 3 min read

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has admitted that the club still owes Lionel Messi wages and will have to keep paying them until 2025.

The outspoken Blaugrana president has given an explosive interview to La Vanguardia in which he has given insights into Barcelona's summer business and the club's economic health. After years of mismanagement, the Catalans are short on money and Laporta was initially brought back to the club to resolve the issue.

Since then, he has had some success, recently getting approval from LaLiga for Barcelona's financial viability plan that must be fulfilled in order to be able to register new players. It includes cuts in Barcelona's media department and other sectors. The freed-up wages from the departures of Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Samuel Umtiti have already gone a long way towards achieving the club's ambitious goals.

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Nevertheless, issues remain and one particular wage package continues to weigh heavily on Barcelona's finances - even though the player left the Blaugrana in 2021.

Messi to be paid until 2025

Laporta has now revealed - once again - that Barcelona were very keen on re-signing Lionel Messi, who has since decided to enter into negotiations with Inter Miami. Laporta, however, also revealed that Barcelona still owe the Argentine money.

"We had an agreement with LaLiga," Laporta said, "that we would dedicate part of the resources we have to Messi. It was included in the viability plan. We communicated that to Jorge Messi. He told me that Leo had had a very difficult year in Paris and that he wanted less pressure."

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Despite Messi leaving Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, the club still has debts because of the "deferral of his salary that was agreed with the previous board and that produces outstanding payments that end in 2025."

Laporta insists that "he is paid religiously" and that the outlay was included in Barcelona's financial viability plan. One must imagine that it is a sizeable outlay indeed considering that Messi reportedly earned between €71 million and €128m per season before he left for Paris.