The daily The world calls them the “Barçaleaks” and unveiled a first part this Thursday: thousands of documents, mostly emails, from the judicial investigation of “Barçagate” (the case shaking the former management of the club), exchanged between the club and its stars, their agents and lawyers.
The first part focuses on the requests of Messi’s representatives to the club to extend, in June 2020, when the player had one year left on his contract: “A private box at Camp Nou for his family and that of Luis Suarez; a private plane flight for his whole family at Christmas to return to Argentina; a signing bonus of 10 million euros (of the extension); recover savings made during the pandemic with 3% interest; or being able to leave Barça whenever he wants thanks to a symbolic departure clause of €10,000”describes El Mundo, which recalls that the player’s emoluments should continue to be € 74.90 million net per year.
Bartomeu was ready to accept almost anything
After two weeks of discussions, continues the daily, “Bartomeu (club president until October 2020), eHe came to accept the conditions imposed by the Messis, with the exception of lowering the departure clause from €700m to €10,000, at the same time as he made the €10m bonus conditional on the fact that the club returns to its pre-pandemic revenue level. But for the Messis it wasn’t enough and they broke off the negotiations. »
There followed the episode of the burofax sent at the end of August 2020 by Messi to leave Barça free, then the categorical refusal of the club and its obligation to stay. A year later, the player joined PSG. In a statement, Barça expressed “his outrage at the self-serving leak of information that would be part of a legal proceeding”. The Messi clan did not wish to react.