Joan Laporta confirms deferred payments to Lionel Messi until 2025 and Barca return rumours

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed that the club owes Lionel Messi payments until 2025. The pending amount is mainly due to deferred wages, to which Messi agreed to during the pandemic and the subsequent period. 

It has been two years since the Argentine’s emotional departure from Camp Nou, but he is still receiving payments due to the structure of the deal agreed with the previous board. Josep Maria Bartomeu’s regime was infamous for handing out massive contracts which rendered the financial structure of the club unsustainable. As a result, Barcelona are still recovering from the mismanagement and are having to pay out money for at least the next two years. 

Barcelona president Joan Laporta reveals the club owes Lionel Messi money until 2025 

“What is owed to him is the deferral of wages that was agreed with the previous board and that produces outstanding payments that end in 2025,” Laporta told La Vanguardia.

Laporta also shed light on their pursuit of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner this summer. There were rumours linking Messi with a return to Barcelona, but the player instead decided to move away from the spotlight of European football and spend the next couple of years in the MLS with Inter Miami. 

“We had an agreement with LaLiga that we would dedicate part of the resources we have to Lionel Messi,” Laporta said.

“It was included in the viability plan. We communicated it to Jorge Messi, who told me that Messi had had a very difficult year in Paris and that he wanted less pressure.

“With our option, he would have continued to be under pressure and I understood his decision [to go to Inter Miami].

“Good luck to him and we’ve started to prepare a major tribute for him.

“Within the framework of the club’s 125th anniversary, and when we return to the Camp Nou, it would be perfect timing for it.”