The sales come to the Camp Nou

Josep Mara Bartomeu was a bargain for the Barcelona footballers, who took the opportunity to renew in enviable conditions, well above the market and their own performance. Messi got the biggest contract in the history of the sport, 555,237,619 million for four years, but the others were not far behind. Since Neymar’s escape in 2017, the worst president ever

has passed through the Camp Nou

made them the highest paid squad in world sport by signing unattainable salaries for a club that on Monday radiographed its situation of absolute ruin: 1.35 billion in debt.

“The situation is dramatic,” Laporta acknowledged. Although he got tired of saying the opposite before and after winning the election,

The president knew that he would not be able to renew Messi because his managers, after taking a first look at the club’s accounts, warned him that it was impossible.

Not even with that surreal formula of paying him 200 million in five years even if he only played two. With the fraud in Paris feeling deceived by Laporta,

the club negotiates with the footballers a salary cut that has raised blisters in the locker room.

On Saturday they announced that they had been able to register Memhis Depay, Eric Garca and Rey Manaj thanks to

Piqu, in a gesture worthy of praise, the salary had been reduced. That first surprised and then angered the other three captains, who felt singled out by the fans.

After agreeing to defer payments (which the club sold as a pay cut)

The captains see how the Bara asks them, now yes, to renounce part of their salary, specifically the bonuses for easily achievable objectives that are actually fixed hidden and represent around 20% of their salary, as well as the loyalty bonus.

Their contracts are not linear, but ascending, and the discount comes to them in the last seasons, when they charge the most. This has been one of the reasons why the agreements have not yet been closed, although from the Bara they take it for granted.

Piqu has a contract until 2024 and that year he ends up earning 38 million gross; Jordi Alba ends up collecting 33 million also in 2024; Busquets collect 34 million in 2023 and Sergi Roberto wins 22 this season, the last he has signed.

After them the club will ask the same of the players with the highest chips: Griezmann, Coutinho …

They are delicate negotiations that are leaving wounds.

Jordi Alba asked on Sunday that their commitment not be doubted and that they ask Laporta, and the next day the president in his answer showed that the story of one and the other did not coincide.

The club thanks them in public for their willingness but privately squeezes the captains, who while the soap opera of Messi’s renewal lasted did not accept any reduction because they understood that they were asking them to ‘pay’ part of the huge salary of the Argentine.

And the truth is that they were right.

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