Messi´s factor: Barcelona broke a millionaire agreement with its main sponsor

New headache for Joan Laporta and the FC Barcelona accounts. When the club most needed to accommodate numbers and obtain income, it received a 'bucket' of cold water: the Japanese company 'Rakuten', which signed the contract with the Barça club in 2020, has decided not to renew the agreement, according to the Catalan media 'Sport'.

The departures of Lionel Messi and Griezmann, together with the uncertainty about the solvency both at the sporting and economic level of Barcelona, caused certain doubts in the ‘Japanese’ companies. Now, the Laporta Board of Directors must search the market for an offer that encourages the club to regain its competitiveness in recent years.

This break aggravates the economic situation of the Catalan club, which will close the 2020-2021 financial year with operating losses of 487 million euros. The Barça entity has already begun the search for new companies that can sponsor the front of the shirt for the next season. ‘Rakuten’, according to the aforementioned media, disbursed the sum of 55 million euros in the first four seasons and 30 million euros in the last season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The one who does not see anything clear in Barcelona is the firm 'Nike', which despite having been collaborating with the culé club since 1998, the current tension between both entities when it comes to formalizing a contract, would have raised the brand of Oregon an exit from Camp Nou, a decision that could open the doors for Puma to see Barça for years to come.