Barcelona claim ‘door open’ for Messi after record financial projections

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 6 Oct 2022 14:34 CDT
• 3 min read

Barcelona have claimed that it has ‘the doors open’ for Lionel Messi to return after projecting record revenue for the current campaign.

The club announced its new budget and financial standings and forecast profits of €274 million and revenues of €1.255 billion, numbers which financial vice-president Eduard Romeu described as ‘conservative.’

Romeu admitted the club had planned for a lower salary bill after seeing it drop from €617m in 2020/21 to €518m last season but he also insisted Barca would be happy to take Messi back despite the figures.

"We know how to make miracles happen. The doors are always open for Messi," Romeu told a press conference. "It is a matter for the sporting management and if the sporting management want it, we will get to work on that objective.”

Romeu cited the presence of ‘high cost contracts’ to the higher-than-expected figure, but believes they will ‘disappear’ soon, referring to the deals of top earners Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

"There are a number of contracts that have a very high cost and between this season and next season they disappear," said Romeu, adding that he wants to achieve a balance by the 2024/25 season.

“What throws us off is the amount we spend on our player salaries,” Romeu said. "We were planning for a more significant reduction in the salary bill. Five hundred million euros would be the ideal figure for a competitive first-team squad."

While Busquets is in the final year of his contract, Pique and Alba’s deals do not expire until 2024, although the club will continue to push for salary cuts or try and move those players on.

The club predict expenses of €1.065bn next year, of which €656m will go on player salaries due to the signings of the likes of Jules Kounde, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, which saw Barca spend more than €200m in transfers this summer.

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Barcelona’s levers paying off

Barcelona said their projected revenue figure included more than €450m from sale of future TV revenue, referring to the ‘economic levers’ they pursued during the summer.

The Catalans said, in the year just ended, they made a profit of €98m, with an operating income of €1.017bn and expenses of €856m, following two seasons of losses during the pandemic.

In the 2020/21 season, Barcelona posted losses of €481m, which prompted club legend Messi to leave on a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.

Messi’s contract at PSG expires next summer and he is believed to be keen on returning to Barca, although he will not make a decision until after the upcoming World Cup.