Lionel Messi Transfer Speculation

Sportsczy....

Myesyats wrote:

So, this is the proposal Barça will most likely offer Messi soon, pending La Liga’s approval:

Contract until 2025 (1+1)
Wages around €13M net p/y (€25M p/y gross)
Many bonuses and variables
Leo to get a % of what he generates to the club#Transfers  pic.twitter.com/nv6ItEJ066

— Reshad Rahman (@ReshadRahman_) April 20, 2023

Messi already indicated he'll accept, pending league approval

I'm really curious as to what "Leo to get a % of what he generates to the club" entails I wouldn't be surprised if they give him equity in the club at this point.

I think it means a % of the sponsorship money that he attracts

The way it's phrased makes it sound quite open ended and not just restricted to sponsorship. It might even include match day revenue and a cut of TV deals.

This is Messi we're talking about, he's not turning down the biblical offers from Saudi Arabia for some measly sponsorship split.

13M net for 25M gross ??

Glad i'm not the only one getting screwed by taxes. Maybe in Spain they have better use for tax money than in Canada (here Cuckdeau uses it for charity)

| Al-Hilal DENY an agreement with Messi, although they admit that he is their main target in the summer. If they succeed in signing Messi, they will also go for other targets such as Busquets. [@martinezferran] #fcblive

— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) May 12, 2023

Officially leaving PSG.

Where next?

Casciavit wrote:Officially leaving PSG.

Where next?

Barca

Him and Anto already enrolled the kids at a school in BCN

Several players (Messi, Ekitike) and Christophe Galtier himself booed by the Parc des Princes crowd as they come out for the trophy presentation - but it's mostly drowned out by the loud music.

— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 3, 2023

He looks radiant walking down that tunnel for the last time

pic.twitter.com/AVFlq9lyZ3

— Reshad Rahman (@ReshadRahman_) June 3, 2023

futbol_bill wrote:Actually it’s Miami with them loaning him to Barca for 6 months possibly extendable to 18 months. Done this way to help Barca with finance controls (lol) and will enable him to have one more run with Argentina NT and then he settles into retirement in MLS.

This would be such a victory for Real Madrid.

@barca fans - remember Messi when he left?  Well he's that dude -40%.  He'll show up for roughly 20 games and won't run at all.  Can't score too much because his speed is slowing... more of an assist guy now with some scoring.

He's class though. Regardless of his poor play, the guy is truly a joy in terms of his behavior and I mean it. Everyone gets old. And, given his success, he doesn't have the same desire anymore. Understandable.

futbol_bill wrote:Actually it’s Miami with them loaning him to Barca for 6 months possibly extendable to 18 months. Done this way to help Barca with finance controls (lol) and will enable him to have one more run with Argentina NT and then he settles into retirement in MLS.

this would make most sense, hopefully it happens. Don't want him to go join Penaldo in his retirement league

Messi still gave PSG a solid 16g and 16a this season, i'm pretty sure he is still well able to improve a team

Messi can be greedy and whatever else. That's just business. But he only had one hiccup (his trip to Saudi Arabia) in terms of professionalism at PSG. Otherwise, he showed up to every practice, played every game (regardless of how well), and never made a bad comment or embarrassed the club.

According to people close to PSG (media; mainly from Le Parisien), everyone in the locker room loved him and, regardless of what the media tried to drum up, he has a fantastic relationship with both Mbappe and Ramos.

Just a good person by all accounts.

El Gunner wrote:Messi still gave PSG a solid 16g and 16a this season, i'm pretty sure he is still well able to improve a team

It would work if Barca didn't have Lewandowski as the CF and Dembele as the winger.  You can't have three players that absolutely can't and won't defend.

Against good teams, you really can't defend with 7 players.  You need 8. And if you're gonna defend with 8 with zero help from 2 (not even playing passing lanes), the middle of the defense needs to be rock solid. Great CBs and a 2 good defensive mids.

That's the issue.  The imbalance he causes.

futbol_bill wrote:Btw, his return to Barca is not as if he improves the team. It’s simply a PR marketing move and will allow club to give him a proper sendoff thanking him for what he has done for them. I won’t be surprised at all to see the 6mth loan concluded and not extended.

Yep thats how it feels like, on a sporting level there are surely doubts. Of course his g/a isnt bad, it's still one of the best in top 5 leagues but is he gonna help us in CL? doubt it, we'd surely breeze through la liga but we need to allocate funds elsewhere to compete in cl

Yea, I think most cules knows that if he played in our team today the problem with balance will come out again which Xavi has largely fixed. PSG showed for so long u cant defend with just 7-8 as Sports said... even yesterday some mid table team picked them apart for fun, partly due to the front 2 but also PSG just cant defend as usual

Anyway, I think we all know he back would be more for sentimental n influence rather than actual performance n output especially vs the top teams. So for that I honestly dont really want him back since Xavi is well on his way with the team development. Having Messi would be nice but definitely would stifle that, unless hes happy to be subbed off or do a lot rotation which we know hes not.

The fact that we dont have elite runners like Mbappe, or Alba anymore, or even a proper RB still for him to work with, means I imagine he wont have much to play to... Balde maybe? Fati/Ferran at LW? They prolly wont even be able to reach Messi's passes Dembele n Raphinha? Maybe. Lewand is a slower no.9 nowdays. But u just cant think of the success rate being high n oppositions can just pack the middle again to defend us. I guess its possible but Xavi would need a lot of tweaking in his tactics to maximize his output n for the team as a whole.

sportsczy wrote:

El Gunner wrote:Messi still gave PSG a solid 16g and 16a this season, i'm pretty sure he is still well able to improve a team

It would work if Barca didn't have Lewandowski as the CF and Dembele as the winger.  You can't have three players that absolutely can't and won't defend.

Against good teams, you really can't defend with 7 players.  You need 8. And if you're gonna defend with 8 with zero help from 2 (not even playing passing lanes), the middle of the defense needs to be rock solid. Great CBs and a 2 good defensive mids.

That's the issue.  The imbalance he causes.

good point, though i think they might be able to get away with it in La Liga if Real Madrid are inconsistent.

Truth be told, with their current team and financial struggles, i don't think they could challenge for the CL anyway, especially when there's such a formidable favourite in City around these days.

So i don't think Xavi will be sacrificing much, if any at all, of his team's future potential if he takes on Messi for one more season.

Ideally i guess, he gets Bernardo Silva to play in that Messi position, but first they need to find a replacement for Busquets.

IMO watching PSG-Bayern and comparing it to the WC, I’ll say this.

Messi needs an elite workrate striker next to him. That’s the only way to cope defensively.

I remember watching PSG-Bayern and it was so easy to create numerical superiorities against PSG because neither Messi or Mbappe (especially) would drop to cover. They’d just stay in the middle and block lanes.

Then I compared it to Alvarez who would form a midfield 5 to cope with those imbalances at times.

So Messi needs a strike partner to do that, but also have to the capacity to make runs in behind regularly. Mbappe is the best in the world at doing the latter, but is even lazier defensively than Messi.

So to get someone who does both your options are only Gabriel Jesus and Alvarez.

Lewandowski is similar to 2019 Suarez. He doesn’t have the legs to get in behind regularly, and he has the lowest defensive workrate at Barca currently.

I know Messi’s production will be better at Barca just because they dominate the ball there, play slower, and they have more respect for him than PSG do. He doesn’t have Mbappe taking stupid shots instead of giving a cutback. He finished with 21 goals this season, and if he goes to Barca I think he’ll finish with a higher goal tally. I also think he’ll probably take penalties again too.

Barca has the quality to win the league again, but they’ll get knocked out in the CL the moment they face a top team because of that defensive imbalance. Then again making it to the R16 is better than exiting the group stages.

Barca got the green light today and Messi's return is edging closer as per multiple tier 1 barca sources.

Jorge Messi — "We have confidence in Leo's return. You will soon know."

I cant believe it if he comes... wow...

No manager has managed to play him n a front 3 so I guess this would mean Dembele playing LW with Lewand doing an even slower Suarez role? The FB would need to provide so much to compensate but we dont have an attacking RB as usual lol? Otherwise Balde would need to constantly being the LW if Dembele stays RW so Messi has players to actually play to, n then rest would have to defend a lot of ground if countered or we would have to be so good at pressing in order not to give opponents too many chances...

Dembele Lewand Messi

Balde De Jong Pedri Araujo/Gavi

Alonso Christensen Kounde

I guess its possible, n better than having Fati/Ferran instead