Messi generates a third of Barca's total income

Says Barcelona presidential rivals Laporta

FE Team | Published: February 02, 2021 22:30:13

BARCELONA, Feb 02 (Agencies): Candidates for the election for the presidency of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta and Victor Font assured on Monday that Lionel Messi `generates more money' he does not earn, after the revelations Sunday on his astronomical contract with the Catalan club.
"Leo generates a lot more income than it costs. We had a study done and it generates a third of Barça's total income", said the former president and candidate Joan Laporta, in statements to Catalan radio Rac1 Monday.
Its competitor Victor Font also assured that "Messi is generating all of this and more for the club. To suggest Barca are ruined because of Messi is an absolutely wrong conclusion", he said in an interview on Onda Cero radio.
Two of the candidates in Barcelona's presidential election, Joan Laporta and Victor Font, insisted on Monday that Lionel Messi "generates more" than he earns, after his "colossal" club contract was published in a Spanish newspaper.
"Leo generates much more income than the money he costs," Joan Laporta, who is seeking to regain the presidency, told Rac1 radio. "It's not only the economic return," Laporta said. "But also the emotional and sporting return, and the vivid moments he gives us."
Messi is in the last year of his contract.
On Sunday, under the headline "the colossal contract that ruins Barcelona", El Mundo published details of the current deal, signed in 2017. It said Messi could have earned 555 million euros ($674 million) by the time the deal expires.
Barcelona responded by saying it was not the source of the leak and it planned to sue El Mundo. The club did not, however, contradict the details.
Laporta is one of three candidates for the election on March 07. One of his rivals, Font, spoke on Onda Cero radio.
"To imply that Barca is ruined because of Messi is an absolutely erroneous conclusion," he said.
Both candidates condemned the "leak" to the Madrid newspaper and both promised they would do everything to keep Messi at Barca. "We have to do everything possible to keep Messi, in 2017 and today too," said Font.
Laporta, the president when Messi first broke into the Barcelona team, agreed.
"I will do everything possible to keep Messi at Barca. I have had signals that he is happy in Barcelona, that he wants to stay."