The gigantic debt that Barcelona still has to pay Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi has already been a Paris Saint Germain player for a few days, but his relationship with FC Barcelona has not completely ended. The Argentine has left in the offices of the Barcelona club an important debt receivable. It is no less than 52 million euros that, according to the newspaper ‘Sport’, the Catalan institution owes the 34-year-old footballer for the deferred salary agreed in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shortly after the paralysis of LaLiga in 2020, the former president of Barcelona, Josep María Bartomeu, agreed with the players of the first team the deferred payment of their salaries. In the case of Lionel Messi, the amount amounts to 52 million, which does not correspond to the loyalty clause, as had been speculated.

According to the aforementioned source, Messi's and Barcelona's lawyers are coordinating the payment terms. From the board of the Barça club, they estimate that the debt could be settled in its entirety between the remainder of 2021 and part of 2022.

Lionel Messi, for his part, continues to train with PSG. The complicity that occurred this Friday reflected his good integration with his new team, where he could be seen laughing with Neymar and close to the rest of the group, in which he is accompanied by compatriots such as Paredes or Di María.