Barcelona has conducted its most important piece of business this summer, and probably of many more transfer windows after that.
The Blaugrana’s outrageous orchestrator, Lionel Messi, will sign a contract renewal with the club in “the coming weeks,” Barcelona announced on Wednesday. The fresh terms will extend the Argentinian’s agreement in Catalonia until June 30, 2021.
Messi’s pay packet is set to bloat to an astronomical £500,000 a week, The Independent’s Ed Malyon reports. To pluck Messi from the Camp Nou, Moises Llorens of AS understands it will cost a rival around €300 million to meet his new release clause.
Should he stay for the duration of the contract, it will extend Messi’s association with Barcelona to 21 years after he joined from Newell’s Old Boys at age 13. In that time he collected a plethora of silverware, including eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues. On a personal level, no one in football history has matched his tally of four Ballon d’Or prizes.
+ Messi
+ Barça#Messi2021 pic.twitter.com/L87MCu3RW1— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 5, 2017
Messi’s goal record – he’s netted 507 times in 583 outings – eclipses any individual feat that …read more