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BARCELONA (Reuters) – Lionel Messi’s salary is too high for Barcelona due to its difficult financial situation, said presidential candidate Emili Rousaud, adding that he wants to keep the club’s all-time top scorer on a reduced contract.
Messi, who was looking to leave Barça at the end of the season, has less than seven months left in his contract with the club where he has spent his entire career. He is free to negotiate with rival clubs from January.
Former Barça vice president Rousaud, who resigned this year in protest at the way the club was being run by then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu, said Messi would accept a lower salary if he could be convinced the club will win again.
“In the current situation of the club, Messi’s salary is not sustainable, so we will have to reach an agreement with him. We will present him with an attractive project,” Rousaud told Spanish daily AS on Tuesday.
“What matters most here is the sports project. When Messi said he was leaving he did not mention the money. He has the highest salary in the world, nobody earns more than him, he does not want to leave because he earns too little.
“He wants to leave because he wants to win trophies. He referred to that recently when he said:” The Champions League is not within our grasp. “He wants a team full of talent.”
Barça were ranked as the highest-earning club in European football by the Deloitte Money League 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated their finances. Last week, the club announced that they would delay the payment of salaries to players.
Messi was named the world’s highest-earning footballer by French newspaper L’Equipe earlier this year, claiming an estimated 8.2 million euros ($ 9.97 million) a month from Barça.
Rousaud, one of many candidates running in the club’s presidential elections on January 24, also said he wants to name Barça’s renovated Camp Nou stadium after Messi, a move he believes will help attract sponsors.
The election comes two months ahead of schedule after Bartomeu resigned in October.
($ 1 = 0.8225 euros)
(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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