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Barcelona continues to be hit financially by the summer saga with club captain Lionel Messi wanting to leave the club, it has been revealed.
Cinto Ajram, who has helped the Catalan giants negotiate multiple sponsorship deals in recent years, has claimed that the Argentine superstar who wants to leave the club has helped the Blaugrana lose more than 25 million euros in their renewed sponsorship with Rakuten.
As El Mundo Deportivo reported earlier this week, the club had agreed to a one-year extension to its ongoing sponsorship deal with the Japanese company until 2022.
The option was activated by the board of the late Josep Maria Bartomeu and is not reviewable by whoever wins the next elections.
The original agreement, which had been signed in 2017, was due to expire in 2021, but has now been renewed, although the terms of the agreement reveal a possible significant impact for Barcelona, according to Ajram.
The sports marketing expert has told in an interview with the Spanish press agency EFE and between Diario Sport appointments that the club had been receiving 55 million euros plus supplements with its original offer, but that now it has been reduced to 30 million euros more add-ons.
Ajram explained: “Business money is shrinking everywhere, but this reduction to € 30 million has less to do with Rakuten’s financial position but rather with uncertainty about Messi’s future.
“I’m not sure the deal is worth up to € 30 million now. The first agreement was signed when Messi was playing with Luis Suárez and Neymar, with the enormous commercial benefits that it brought. Now two are gone and the other wants out.
“People think of Barcelona through Messi and the uncertainty about his future means that no sponsor will want to commit to a long-term deal with the club.”
