The contract extension of Lionel Messi with his boyhood club Barcelona was a big talking point in the summer of 2020. The financial havoc created by Josep Bartomeu made it impossible for the club to retain Messi, as doing so would surpass their wage bills of the La Liga limits.

Turns out, the Spanish outlet El Mundo has managed to source and leak Messi’s exorbitant demands, as mentioned in his contract, which the club was clearly not in a situation to accept. It is further believed that Barcelona accepted a majority of his demands, except for reducing his contract clause from a whopping €700million to €10,000.

It’s understandable why the Catalan giant didn’t acquiesce to the contract clause reduction, which would have let Messi leave the club without much hassle.

Messi also asked for a private jet that would let him travel to his home country Argentina during Christmas. He was not ready to entertain any reduction in the net salary, meaning the club would have to make a proportionate increase in his salary if the Spanish government increase the taxation rate.

In the middle of the pandemic when Barcelona was struggling to keep up with the wage bill, many players took the wage reduction. Messi did too, but he wanted the deduction to be paid at an interest rate of 3%. Moreover, he also wanted a signing bonus of €10m after signing the contract extension. Only Kylian Mbappe has managed to get such an absurd signing bonus amount.

“Let them feel the weight of the sword on their head,” wrote Messi’s father to the wealth management firm in one of the emails. The Argentine also wanted a VIP box at Camp Nou for his and his close friend Luis Suarez’s families. When Suarez left Barcelona, Messi wrote a heartfelt letter on Instagram, where he also took a subtle dig at the club.

The club has slammed El Mundo for leaking private documents. “In relation to the information published today in El Mundo del Siglo XXI, under the title ‘BarçaLeaks, los archivos secretos del club, parte 1’, FC Barcelona expresses its indignation at the leaking of information that would form part of a judicial proceeding,” read the statement.

The Argentine has had a great start to the season at PSG, where he forms one-third of the deadly combination featuring his ex-Barca colleague Neymar, and Mbappe.

Lead Image: FC Barcelona/Twitter