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Football icon Lionel Messi, who has spent his entire club career with FC Barcelona, will not return to the legendary La Liga squad, the team announced Thursday.
“Despite an agreement between the club and the player and their clear intention to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen due to financial and structural hurdles,” the club said in a brief statement.
The 34-year-old has been with FC Barcelona for 17 seasons in a streak that saw him win 10 La Liga titles.
He won the men’s Ballon d’Or, the award honoring the world’s greatest footballer, a record six times.
Despite his advanced age, Messi remains a very productive player in one of the most elite leagues in the world, scoring 30 goals in 30 appearances last season.
And with one of the biggest players in the world now in the open market, fans of big teams like Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain will surely be pressuring their clubs to shell out so many pounds or euros. to get the icon services.
In May, Forbes magazine ranked Messi as the second highest-paid athlete of 2020-21, making around $ 130 million in the previous 12 months.
His salary at Barca, in addition to lucrative sponsorship deals with big names such as Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger’s sister Ginny Hilfiger, put Messi at the top of the list of wealthy athletes. He was only behind UFC fighter and founder of Irish whiskey Proper No. Twelve, Conor McGregor, at $ 180 million.
The only flaw in Messi’s resume is his relative lack of success on the international stage, playing for his home country Argentina.
But even that box was ticked this summer as Skyblues and Whites won the Copa America on July 10 with a 1-0 victory over Brazil.
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