Messi wants €20 million net a year

Posted Sunday, April 27, 2014 by Marca.com

Jorge Messi, Leo's father, will be coming to Barcelona to meet the president and reach an agreement as soon as possible.

At the start of this week, Leo Messi delivered his latest proposal in the drawn-out saga over his new contract. He is sticking to his guns, having altered his position very little compared to his previous requests. He is asking for €20 million net per season, and another €3 million in add-ons. The ball is now in the club's court.

The situation has club president Josep Maria Bartomeu on edge. The Barcelona supremo was so surprised that Messi had let so much time go by without responding to the club's previous offer that he had started to think that Leo did not want to stay on at Barcelona. However, this response has reassured him, but Messi's demands are still very high - nearly €2 million net more than the club is offering.

Jorge Messi, Leo's father, will be coming to Barcelona to meet the president and reach an agreement as soon as possible. There will be two main points to discuss at this meeting.

The first of these is the question of Messi's basic salary and add-ons, where agreement has not been reached. The other key point is about image rights, which are shared by the player and the club. Barcelona still harbour hopes of being able to use his image exclusively, but it has to be worked out how the Argentine will be paid for that. The club had waived its claim to the player's image rights in its last proposal.