Lionel Messi-Goated

[danhirons]

In a move that will shock no one, it looks like the richest player in history is just looking around to find the next club that will sustain his 2 million a week paycheck and will join the billionaires club at PSG.

It's probably why he is not, and never will be, revered like Maradona, who drove weak teams with average players to greatness at club and country level.

yes maradona - the cheat both in sporting terms and drug terms, drug addict, and who barely played a proper game past his 30th birthday...who basically moved to Napoli so that he could live a more drug acceptable lifestyle and for money - it was a world record fee and they paid him more than barca

Messi is 34...Maradona was lingering in the argentinian leagues at this point hardly playing...no comparison for me, Messi is on another, much higher level altogether. To sustain the level of performances he has is incredible

[SG90]

I'm really gutted about Messi leaving Barcelona. I was hoping he'd be a one club man, which is so rare in football now. Unfortunately Barcelona abandoned what they were all about and wasted so much on expensive flops and vanity signings. Hopefully they can rebuild with the likes of Pedri, Fati and Puig.

[Mountain]

To sustain the level of performances he has is incredible

I agree.

The HGH treatment Barcelona paid for, the questions around their drug routine with journalists like Graham Hunter saying growth hormones were administered to Messi, Xavi and others for injury recovery (with Messi claiming a TUE exemption), their manager Guardiola using Nandrolone as a player...

[Leeds1000]

yes maradona - the cheat both in sporting terms and drug terms, drug addict, and who barely played a proper game past his 30th birthday...who basically moved to Napoli so that he could live a more drug acceptable lifestyle and for money - it was a world record fee and they paid him more than barca

Messi is 34...Maradona was lingering in the argentinian leagues at this point hardly playing...no comparison for me, Messi is on another, much higher level altogether. To sustain the level of performances he has is incredible

Or you could turn it on its head and say could Messi have carried a poor team coked up all the time? He was a one off Maradona.

Although i still think maybe the Camorra pulled a few strings behind the scenes in his time in Napoli. And not juts the drugs.

[Smudge3920]

Love it ...
.

[mentalcase]

Lionel Messi imho is the greatest player at this time, Ive seen them all in my lifetime, in no particular order : Pele, Maradona, Best, Cruyff , Ronaldive, Ronaldo and Eddie Gray.
Seeing Messi cry last neet put me off him as a person, he earned roughly £400,000 a week at Barcelona and will earn almost £500,000 a week at PSG, why did he cry ? He didnt want to leave ....apparently, his boyhood club, this is the same man who put in a transfer request last season, was that by mistake ?
The club can no longer afford him, so, they discussed, a wage reduction , one which Messi agreed to, but , that would still leave the club in severe financial difficulty, so Messi cried his poor little heart out because he was heartbroken obviously, or, was it because he didnt want the fans to think he'd masterminded his get out of Barca clause !!
I know its different for fans like us on a pittance a week saying we would play for nowt or £50,000 a week , which is massive to us but poor for the superstars.
Look at it this way : Messi could afford to play for nothing, he could have said, pay me £50,000 a week, he could have said, your'e my boyhood club, I love you so much, I will play for nothing, infact, I will pay the club £20 million to help ease the burden for the next 2 seasons before I retire, leaving the world stunned, leaving the fans in tears for such a gesture, and, leaving the club whom he owed it all to in a better financial state..............or he could cry and go to PSG.

[Leeds1000]

Like most things in life the longer you are somewhere the more liberties one seems to take. On top of his extortionate wages, he does seem to have become a bit of a nescience over the last few years. If he was really loyal he would still be there. Only my speculative opinion.

[Cjay]

In fairness to Messi Barcelona have been horrifically mismanaged for years.

La Liga have a salary cap of 70% of your revenue.

To put in to context how badly mismanaged Barcelona have been, with Messi gone they are at around 95%.

That is with Messi gone.

As a consequence they cant register any new players (which you may have read) until they bring their wage bill down by another 25%.

They allowed Messi's contract to run down and aimed to agree a new contract after (which they did) they assumed La Liga would never let Messi leave La Liga.

They assumed La Liga wouldn't allow the league to lose the star power and commercial pull and would thus help Barcelona to come to a solution.

They were wrong, La Liga rightfully inforced their rules, once Messi's contract ran down he would count as a new playerand Barcelona can not register any new players until the wage bill is reduced.

Messi could have played for free, Messi could have given Barcelona £20mil a year, it wouldn't have mattered, Barcelona let his contract run down and as soon as that happened Messi had to leave.

He wanted to stay, he prefers the new President and wanted to stay but he couldn't.

[mentalcase]

Thanks for the input, always helps when folk educate you about aspects you dont fully understand

[Cjay]

Thanks for the input, always helps when folk educate you about aspects you dont fully understand

No problem i have had a keen interest in Barcelona since we went their on holiday when i was a kid so thats the only reason i know that.

Whether Messi could have done more to negotiate his new contract before the old one expired i dont know but i think the simple case is Barcelona couldnt afford to keep Messi.

They will blame La Liga but they really only have themselves to blame imo.

And welcome to the forum

[Chilli D]

It was announced yesterday that Barcelona lost €467 in 2020/21 alone and are currently €1.2 billion in debt.
That's mind blowing.
As they say, you reap what you sow.

[The Subhuman]

yes maradona - the cheat both in sporting terms and drug terms, drug addict, and who barely played a proper game past his 30th birthday...who basically moved to Napoli so that he could live a more drug acceptable lifestyle and for money - it was a world record fee and they paid him more than barca

Messi is 34...Maradona was lingering in the argentinian leagues at this point hardly playing...no comparison for me, Messi is on another, much higher level altogether. To sustain the level of performances he has is incredible

Maradona would never appear in a top 20 of mine

[Mountain]

The sobbing when he was leaving Barcelona were a fairly obscene image.

Does he pay anyone to advise him that, a footballer crying because he cannot maintain his 1 or 2 million a week wages at the club he wants and may have to move to another club to keep that tap flowing is the ultimate in "First World problems"?

I have no issue with him realising his worth, but perhaps a little more gratitude and self awareness, and a little less blubbing about how upsetting it all is, would be better PR...

[whiteswan]

Sick and tired of the media fawning all over him. Sky sports dedicating hours to this so I've switched off

[hector]

Sick and tired of the media fawning all over him. Sky sports dedicating hours to this so I've switched off

were you ever switched on??

[whiteswan]

were you ever switched on??

You think your sooooooo funny

[danhirons]

In fairness to Messi Barcelona have been horrifically mismanaged for years.

La Liga have a salary cap of 70% of your revenue.

To put in to context how badly mismanaged Barcelona have been, with Messi gone they are at around 95%.

That is with Messi gone.

As a consequence they cant register any new players (which you may have read) until they bring their wage bill down by another 25%.

They allowed Messi's contract to run down and aimed to agree a new contract after (which they did) they assumed La Liga would never let Messi leave La Liga.

They assumed La Liga wouldn't allow the league to lose the star power and commercial pull and would thus help Barcelona to come to a solution.

They were wrong, La Liga rightfully inforced their rules, once Messi's contract ran down he would count as a new playerand Barcelona can not register any new players until the wage bill is reduced.

Messi could have played for free, Messi could have given Barcelona £20mil a year, it wouldn't have mattered, Barcelona let his contract run down and as soon as that happened Messi had to leave.

He wanted to stay, he prefers the new President and wanted to stay but he couldn't.

great post thanks

have you seen griezmann's salary?! it's like 18 million a year (after tax) - and rises 2 million net a year for the rest of the contract (something like those figures anyway, can't remember in euros or gbp, obscene either way) and they paid a ridiculous transfer fee for him too!

[Cjay]

Lionel Messi won his 7th Ballon d'Or last night.

A record which confirms his status as the greatest of his generation and to many of all time.

Nice that he acknowledged that Robert Lewandowski was robbed last year ( covid made them cancel and RL was guaranteed to win).

Some saying Lewandowski should have won it this year and its true his goal contribution record is phenomenal (every 65 or so minutes ) but he was playing for Bayern.

Messi basically dragged Barcelona kicking and screaming to 3rd in La Liga, scoring or assisting 45% of their goals. He also dragged them to the last 16 of the Champions League scoring 5 in 6 games , scoring 3 and assisting 1 as Barcelona won the Copa Del Rey and finally inspired Argentina to win the Copa America scoring 4 and assisting 5 in just 7 games.

Lewandowski had a great team helping him, Messi had 2 teams in decline.

That's the difference

[mentalcase]

Always preferred Messi over ronaldive, and he wasn't accused of rape either.

[Cjay]

At 35 the brilliant little magician is back to his best.

The first player in a top 5 European league to have reached 10+ goals and assists so far this season

6 goals and 9 assists in just under 11 games in the league.

4 goals and 3 assists in 4 Championship League games.

He has the most goal contributions of any player in any competition this season with 27 in total

He has surpassed Pele as the player with the most goal contributions of any Footballer with 1127.

GOAT