Messi: The shocking end of a record-setting era

Lionel Messi breaks down in tears during his farewell press conference yesterday 

Yesterday, the 8th of August 2021, Leo Messi held a teary press conference to officially bid Barcelona farewell. It was an emotional and a teary one. 

34 year old Messi joined Barca at the age of 13, and has now spent 21 years at the club. His departure came as a shock to the world of football. Nobody saw it coming. 

Although he had not renewed his contract on paper, there was already a verbal agreement between Messi and Barcelona. The contract was to be signed on Thursday, the 5th of August, 2021 but due to La Liga regulations, the contract suddenly fell through. 

In case you're not aware, all La Liga clubs have a budgetary limit, and it's based on each clubs earnings, revenue streams, profits and losses, overhead costs, investments and debt repayments.

Barca is currently operating above their salary limit and this was the problem.

One would wonder why Barcelona and Messi chose to still go ahead with the contract as if everything was fine.

Well, they had a plan and they were confident it would pull through. Messi had agreed to a 50% pay cut which they believed will reduce the club's spending limit. 

They also agreed that Messi would sign a 5-year contract instead of the 2 years that was agreed initially. But there was a catch, which was that for those 5 years, Messi would receive only 2 years' salary, which would be spread over those 5 years. This was in a bid to reduce the club's spending and help the club financially. They felt that it would be acceptable to La Liga but it wasn't. 

People have come out to say that La Liga is inflexible with their regulations, but I don't think that's the case. I think La Liga wants their clubs to operate within their spending capabilities and are not willing to make an exception for anybody, even Messi. 

I believe they know what they stand to lose from Messi's departure but they are set on enforcing their regulations no matter the cost.

Given the right circumstance, I believe they would have done everything in their power to keep Messi in Spain.

La Liga president, Javier Tebas repeatedly warned Barcelona that the new terms would still breach La Liga's financial fair play regulations.

"No, I won't [turn a blind eye] for Messi, it's impossible," Tebas told Spanish outlet Marca last month, according to Mirror. I guess Barcelona felt they could find a way around it despite Tebas' repeated warnings.

Did Barcelona play the right cards? Did they do everything they could to keep Messi? Well, I think they did their best but their hands were tied. 

To be able to register Messi, Barcelona would have to lose in the region of €200million from their current salary bill before the new season begins, in compliance with the La Liga regulations.

This is almost impossible considering the high-salary players on their payroll and there's a case of Antoine Griezmann rejecting a pay cut. 

Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele are two of the club’s highest earners who could have been sold, but both are currently injured, making it difficult for them to be sold this summer.

Let's not forget Samuel Umtiti and Miralem Pjanic—two fringe players who are also among the squad’s highest earners who rejected Barca’s offer of a payout to leave as free agents.

And that's not all, the Catalan giants have been unable to register any of their 4 summer signings (Garcia, Aguero, Emerson and Depay) because of the La Liga regulations. So you can see they were in a tight situation at Barca. Their hands were tightly tied.

Barcelona’s huge financial difficulties are the result of disastrous decisions that led to enormous levels of unsustainable spending, with the financial constraints of the pandemic worsening the situation. 

Sadly, These factors led to the abrupt end of the fairy tale romance between Messi and Barcelona. 

Messi's astonishing career and story

Messi signed for Barca at the tender age of 13. Prior to that, at age 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. As his father's health insurance covered only two years of growth hormone treatment, which cost at least $1,000 per month, Newell's agreed to contribute, but later reneged on their promise. So when Barca showed interest in Messi, his father agreed but on the condition that they would take over the cost of Messi's treatment which Barca happily agreed to.

Messi rose through the ranks and made his first-team debut at age 16 during a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto on 16th November, 2003. After his debut, he was not called up to the first team again till October 2004.

At yesterday's press conference, Leo Messi could not hold back tears, neither could this cameraman

Messi made his league debut on 16th October, against Espanyol, coming on in the 82nd minute. At 17 years, three months, and 22 days old, he was at the time the youngest player to represent Barcelona in an official competition. He played 77 minutes in nine matches as a substitute for the first team that season, including his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk.

He scored his first senior goal on 1st May, 2005, against Albacete, from an assist by Ronaldinho, becoming the youngest-ever scorer for the club at that time. Barcelona, in their second season under Rijkaard, won the league for the first time in six years. 

Messi was prone to muscular injuries and in 2008 Barcelona decided to combat the problem by implementing new training, nutrition, and lifestyle regimens for him, and assigned him a personal physiotherapist, who would travel with him during call-ups for the Argentina national team. As a result, Messi remained virtually injury-free during the next four years, allowing him to reach his full potential.

In his first injury-free campaign (2008/2009 season), he scored 38 goals in 51 games, contributing alongside Eto'o and Thierry Henry to a total of 100 goals in all competitions, a record at the time for the club. And from that moment, there was no stopping Leo Messi.

The little magician as he's popularly called, won 35 trophies at Barcelona, 6 Ballon D'ores and a host of awards. 

He ended his career with Barcelona scoring 672 goals in 778 appearances since his debut in 2004. Messi’s goal tally for Barcelona is the most ever by a player for one club, after he surpassed Pele’s record of 643 for Santos last season.

He is comfortably La Liga’s record goalscorer with 474, and is also second all-time in the Champions League with 120 to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 134. 

Messi scored an astonishing 48 hat-tricks for Barcelona. Wow! A record I doubt would ever be broken. Well, time will tell.

He has scored Champions League goals in 16 seasons, equalling Ryan Giggs’ record, but unlike the former Wales international, he has done so in consecutive years dating back to 2005-06.

During the 2011-12 campaign, he scored 73 times in 60 games for Barcelona in all competitions which remains an astonishing feat till date.

He surpassed 50 goals in all club competitions on five other occasions, with four more campaigns in the 40s and over 30 in every season since 2008-09.

Leo Messi, simply put, is extraordinary and in a league of his own.

Messi's likely future plans

Messi will surely be missed at Barcelona and Spain. He's likely to pen down a deal with Paris Saint-Germain who are offering two years and one year option to extend the agreement until June 2024. €35m salary net per season but with add-ons included. 

He would definitely love to reunite with Neymar who has been trying to persuade him to join PSG. Recall that in a bid to sweeten the PSG deal, Neymar offered to let go of the No.10 jersey for Messi, but Messi turned it down. It is speculated that Messi will wear the No.19 jersey which he formerly wore for Barcelona and Argentina.

Regardless of where Messi goes, the city of Catalonia will never forget him. It wasn't the kind of fairly tale ending they all wanted, but life happens and we have to move on.

“This is very difficult, I was not prepared for this. Last year I was convinced to leave, but this year we were, my family and I wanted to continue here, in our house," he told reporters amidst tears at a press conference. 

"Today I have to say goodbye, I arrived very young at 13 years old, and after 21 years, I am leaving with my wife and three children."

"I have no doubts after being away for several years, we will return because I promised my children.”

These were some of Messi's last words at the press conference as he tried to fight tears. 

Goodbye, Leo. You will be missed.

Ada Anunaso is an efficient sales copywriter, Upwork strategist, and sports enthusiast based in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a long-time Chelsea fan and contributor at The Paul Anunaso Blog, and can be reached at adagozie1@gmail.com