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Lionel Messi wants to leave Barcelona.
After 16 incredible seasons at the Camp Nou, the man seen by many as the greatest footballer of all time is finished.
But it won’t go quietly. The club is desperate to stay with Messi and it will make it very difficult for him to walk.
Much of the argument revolves around his contract.
The Argentine believes that he has the right to activate the clause of his agreement that allows him to leave for free every summer, while Barça demands that his termination of 700 million euros be fulfilled.
On Sunday, La Liga sided with the club and shared a statement confirming that the only way Messi can leave is if a club pays its release clause.
Surely no one can afford that. 700 million euros is an exorbitant amount of money, but it is not by far the largest in football.
Take a look at an XI of the players with the highest release clauses in the world.
GK – Thibaut Courtois | Real Madrid | 700 million euros
In 2018, Courtois forced Real Madrid to move from Chelsea. Regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, he came in for just £ 31.5 million
Los Blancos inserted a € 700 million purchase into their deal to guarantee that the Belgian will be at the Bernabéu for many years to come.
CB: Raphael Varane | Real Madrid | 500 million euros
Regarded as one of the best defenders in the world, it is little surprise that Madrid have written a huge release clause into Varane’s contract.
Any club that wants to sign the defender will have to pay 500 million euros for the winner of the World Cup.
CB: Samuel Umtiti | Barcelona | 500 million euros
Like Varane, Umtiti has a purchase of 500 million euros in his contract. Barcelona signed the defender in 2016, but reports suggest that Ronald Koeman has told him that he is not necessary at Camp Nou.
In this rare case, the club may be willing to sell for much, much less than 500 million euros.
CB: Gerard Piqué | Barcelona | 500 million euros
Piqué completes the subsequent three and his termination clause is the same as the previous two.
Now 33, the Spaniard is past his prime, but he has been one of the best defenders in the world for more than a decade. It’s no wonder his contract, signed in 2018, included a big purchase.
LM: Isco | Real Madrid | 700 million euros
Isco has found himself in disgrace at Madrid in recent years and has also struggled to keep a starting job due to injury.
But when he signed his last contract in 2017, Los Blancos inserted a 700 million euro release clause into his contract. Would any club really pay that for Isco? We are not so sure.
CM: Luka Modric | Real Madrid | 750 million euros
When Modric signed his contract in 2016, Real Madrid included a strong buyout clause of 750 million euros.
It seems they were right in doing so, considering that the Croatian midfielder won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 and proved his importance to the club.
CM: Federico Valverde | Real Madrid | 750 million euros
This could be a bit surprising. Valverde has done very little to prove his incredible worth at the Bernabéu.
But the fact that the club set its buyout clause at € 750 million in 2019 shows that it has a bright future ahead of it.
RM: Marco Asensio | Real Madrid | 700 million euros
Like his midfield teammate Isco, Asensio has a € 700 million clause in the contract he signed in 2017.
Real Madrid were really desperate to tie up their stars that summer, weren’t they?
FWD: Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 700 million euros
The man surrounding the entire debate. It seems the only way Messi can leave Barça this summer is if a club activates his € 700 million termination.
That is incredibly unlikely to happen, so the Argentine will have to fight his way out of the Camp Nou, through the pitch.
FWD: Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | € 1 billion
Benzema has the largest purchase clause of this XI, set at a ridiculous one billion euros.
He has spent more than a decade at Madrid and is undoubtedly one of the club’s best players, but signing a deal with a 1 billion euro buyout clause at the age of 32 is quite extraordinary.
FWD: Antoine Griezmann | Barcelona | 800 million euros
Despite Messi’s stature at the Camp Nou, his release clause is dwarfed by Griezmann, whose purchase would cost 800 million euros.
Barca found it difficult to get their man in 2019 and have made sure that no one else can touch him as long as the club needs him.
That’s a ridiculously expensive XI. As you can see, all the players involved are from Barcelona and Real Madrid.
In Spain, clubs must insert termination clauses in agreements. Other countries don’t follow that rule. But it’s certainly a good way to protect your prize assets, as Barça is discovering.
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