Barcelona's offer to Messi: reinforcements, salary reduction and an ambassador position

03/13/2021 9:28 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 03/13/2021 9:28 AM

Going out of his way to convince Lionel Messi to continue at the club after June 30 was a campaign promise shared by all of Barcelona's presidential candidates.

After his electoral victory last Sunday, Joan Laporta began to unfold his plan to achieve that goal.

And in the next few days he will expose it to the captain and to Jorge Messi, his father and representative.

According to what was published by the

Mundo Deportivo

newspaper

this Saturday, Laporta will bet on seducing Leo with a combo that will include not only the guarantee of a competitive team for the next season, but also a position as ambassador of the institution when his career ends. .

This would compensate, in part, the salary cut that the proposal will include, in line with the general pruning that the club has been doing as a result of the fall in income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Among the footballers who could join Barça for the next season, the Norwegian Erling Haaland stands out.

The Borussia Dortmund striker, barely 20 years old, is one of the most coveted pieces for the next transfer market, so the Catalan club will have to make a major financial effort to count on him.

For this, it will be necessary to make sales that report good income.

Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembélé head the list of candidates starting.

Joan Laporta was elected president of Barcelona last Sunday.

(Photo: Andreu Dalmau / EFE)

In addition to Haaland, other renowned footballers could also join, with more experience and whose hiring would not require a significant wallet blow.

One of them is Sergio Agüero, one of the most endearing friends that football gave Messi.

The

Kun

completes his contract with Manchester City midyear and everything indicates that it will

not go there.

Another is Austrian defender David Alaba, a multi-champion with Bayern Munich, who will also be released on June 30.

With the arrival of these players plus the young people who have stood out this season (Pedri, Ansu Fati, Frenkie De Jong), Laporta aims to set up a squad that supports Messi and allows the team to be competitive again, especially in the continental bid.

A sample of this lost ground was the elimination of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday: it was the first time in 14 that the Blaugrana team could not overcome the round of 16 of the main club tournament in Europe.

But the proposal is not just for the short term.

According to

Mundo Deportivo

, the new leadership would offer Messi a contract until the end of the Qatar 2022 World Cup "and, from then on, a future in the United States, where it is not ruled out that the Barcelona club will recover the old project of a franchise" .

Later, the man from Rosario would become the institution's ambassador.

Lionel Messi voted on Sunday in the Barcelona elections with his son Thiago at the Camp Nou.

After the elections last Sunday, Laporta (not yet formally assumed the position of president) and Messi had brief and cordial contacts.

But they have not yet discussed the renewal offer.

The new president clarified that he would not do it until the audit in the club was finished, since only then could he diagram an economic proposal.

For now, it is likely that Jorge Messi will travel to Catalonia next week to meet with the new leadership of Barça and thus begin to define the future of his son.

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