Football: Lionel Messi, new PSG player, in 7 crazy figures

Johan Cruyff felt that « the average players (cost) too much ». FC Barcelona would have added that legends can also weigh on a club’s budget. Overwhelmed by debts, the Catalan club had to separate from the child prodigy. Despite his desire to stay, Lionel Messi will play well under the new colors, those of Paris-Saint-Germain, for the 2021-2022 season.

If multiple records have been broken in sport, many figures say a lot about the man and the player. A few years from retirement from sports, Lionel Messi will have marked the history of football and sport.

A fortune of over a billion dollars

According to Forbes, the Argentine became in 2020 the fourth sportsman to see his personal fortune exceed the billion dollars. Before him, only Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Jordan and Cristiano Ronaldo had crossed this symbolic bar.

555,237,619 euros gross

This is the sum that Lionel Messi would have won during the last four seasons, after the extension of his contract in 2017. Unveiled by the Spanish newspaper « El Mundo » on January 31, the news had reacted to the Catalan supporters, shared between their love for « La Pulga » (La Puce) and their exasperation at such a sum.

This sum includes his fixed salary, image rights, bonuses of several million euros, fees and a series of bonuses linked to sporting goals. The newspaper said the net amount was around 297 million euros. By reducing the salary on a daily basis, Lionel Messi would earn 380,299 euros gross per day, or 210,297 euros net.

Shortly after the publication of these figures, FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi sued the newspaper. The club had denied its responsibility in the publication of this contract.

1st Spanish taxpayer

« El Periodico » had unveiled in February the amount that Lionel Messi paid to the Spanish tax authorities since the extension of his contract in 2017. The Argentinian thus paid 370 million euros, most of which relates to income tax ( 275 million euros).

The Spanish newspaper specified that « the total amount of taxes paid by Lionel Messi would be equivalent to a total of more than 120,000 taxpayers paying in income tax ».

21 months in prison for tax evasion

In 2017, the Spanish Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the Barcelona court, which sentenced Lionel and Jorge Messi, his father, to 21 months in prison and a fine of 3.7 million euros for tax evasion. The fraud, linked to the image rights of the player between 2007 and 2009, had reached the sum of 4.16 million euros.

However, Messi got the Barcelona court to replace his 21-month prison sentence for fraud with a fine of 252,000 euros. In Spain, sentences of less than two years in prison are generally not carried out, at least in the absence of judicial precedents, as was the case for the Argentine.

80 to 90% of jersey sales

Before the pandemic, the Catalan club generated 60 million in merchandising revenues, jerseys being the main product sold. According to « Marca », of all the jerseys sold, 80 to 90% are flocked to the name of Messi, or 48 million euros directly attributable to the popularity of the Argentine.

244 million followers on Instagram

It’s hard not to compare the popularity of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on social networks. Renowned more discreet than the Portuguese footballer, Lionel Messi has 244 million followers on Instagram, while Cristiano Ronaldo has 324 million.

The other two stars of PSG, Neymar and Mbappé, are far behind the two biggest players of the last decade, with 156 million and 55 million followers respectively. PSG and FC Barcelona, ​​meanwhile, have 38.5 million and 99.9 million subscribers.

50% reduction in salary

During his press conference this weekend, Lionel Messi revealed that he had accepted a 50% cut in his salary to relieve FC Barcelona’s finances. But that would have been impossible even if he had agreed to play for free for the Catalan club, La Liga setting up a « salary cap », with a limitation of the wage bill, which cannot exceed 70% of the turnover. business. Without Lionel Messi, the proportion remains well above the authorized limit, and reaches 95% of turnover.