How Messi’s Barcelona exit will impact the footballing world
Masseh Danishyar writes.
It’s official. The greatest footballer of all time, Lionel Messi, has left FC Barcelona after 21 years to join Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint Germain for a €35 million transfer. Messi scored 672 goals in 778 appearances on his way to winning ten La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles and six Ballon d’Ors.
The Argentinian was forced out of the club due to Barcelona’s struggling financial situation and inability to adhere to La Liga’s salary cap.
In one last tearful press conference, Messi said his goodbyes to his boyhood club, as he and his family embarked on their new journey to Paris. Coming as one of the biggest transfers in football history, the move will have far-reaching implications for the footballing world.
Why did he leave?
Former Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu’s mismanagement of the club has been widely blamed for the financial precarity that forced Messi’s departure. Following his appointment in 2014, Bartomeu orchestrated a series of costly decisions that contributed to Barcelona’s inflated wage bill and immense financial debt.
Rather than placing trust in talented youth players from the club’s famed academy, La Masia, Bartomeu massively overspent on players who contributed little to no value to the team.
Signings such as Arda Turan for €41 Million in 2015 and André Gomes for €55 million in 2016 signalled the beginning of Bartomeu’s wasteful spending spree, with neither of the two midfielders living up to their high transfer fee. Bartomeu also overspent on ageing players who were long past the peak of their careers, such as central midfielders Paulinho for €40 million and Arturo Vidal for €18 million.
This pattern continued as Barcelona looked to Europe to replace winger Neymar following his transfer to PSG in 2017. The purchase of Ousmane Dembélé for €135 million has proven catastrophic, with the talented French winger sidelined with injury for much of his Barcelona career. Meanwhile, the €160 million transfer of Phillipe Coutinho was equally unfruitful with the ex-Liverpool player struggling to adapt to Barcelona’s system.
Current players signed under Bartomeu also enjoy inflated salaries, contributing to the primary factor in Messi’s departure. €120 million French striker Antoine Griezmann, for example, is contracted on a wage of €881,423 per week, making him one of the highest paid players in the world.
In 2013, La Liga introduced a salary cap which limits player wages and acquisition costs to 70% of a club’s revenue. A combination of excessive player wages and decreased revenue in the global pandemic meant that Barcelona could no longer pay Messi while adhering to the salary cap. Indeed, La Liga’s new budget regulations saw Barcelona’s wage budget decrease from €579 million for the 2019/20 season to just €138 million for the 2021/22 campaign.
Current club president, Joan Laporta, acknowledged the impact of the salary cap in Messi’s final press conference, blaming the lack of “margins in terms of salary”.
How will Barcelona replace the irreplaceable?
Barcelona have heavily relied on the brilliance of Messi for their recent domestic successes, as the Argentine has taken on the responsibilities as both the clubs primary goal scorer and playmaker. Messi was Barcelona’s top scorer and assister in La Liga last season with 30 goals and 9 assists.
Messi’s departure paves the way for Griezmann to become Barcelona’s main attacking force, as he seeks to recapture the form that saw him win the 2018 World Cup and earn a top three place in the 2016 and 2018 Ballon d’Or.
Manager Ronald Koeman will also inevitably look to La Masia.18-year-old Spanish forward Ansu Fati has already been tipped as the future star of the club, registering 4 goals out of 7 league games in the 20-21 season.
Honoured for his discipline and technical ability that resembles that of Iniesta, exciting Spanish midfielder Pedri played the most minutes out of any first team player (apart from Messi) last season despite only being 18 years old, as well as delivering exceptional performances for Spain in the 2020 Euros that earned him a place in the official team of the tournament.
These youngsters, along with midfielders Riqui Puig and Álex Collado, as well as forward Yusuf Demir, are tipped to be the core of Barcelona’s future.
PSG: the new Galacticos
Despite being one of the most star-studded teams in Europe for the past decade, PSG are yet to win a Champions League title. In 2020, they lost the final to 1-0 to Bayern Munich, a result that only compounded their domestic failure in conceding the Ligue 1 title to LOSC Lille.
The addition of Messi, however, makes PSG heavy favourites for the upcoming Ligue 1 and Champions League campaigns. The Parisians now boast the most menacing front line in Europe of Messi, Neymar and the rapid French forward Kylian Mbappé, a trio that registered 66 goals and 25 assists between them in 84 league games last season.
Perhaps even more shocking than the transfer itself is the fact that Lionel Messi will now also play alongside former Real Madrid captain and rival Sergio Ramos after spending the majority of their careers trying to break each other’s legs in El Clasico.
For Messi, moving to PSG was perhaps the best possible decision he could have made in order to add to his collection of Champions League titles. The additions of Ramos, Achraf Hakimi and Gianluigi Donnarumma to the squad have only bolstered PSG’s trophy aspirations.
However, with all the pressure on them to finally win the Champions League, it remains unclear as to whether PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino, someone who has only won a single major title in his career, will bring out the best in Messi and the rest of the PSG squad. As they famously say, you can take the Pochettino out of Spurs, but you can’t take the Spurs out of Pochettino.