Football Trolls

BREAKING: The Champions League play-off draw is complete! 🚨✅

Five months ago, Barcelona signed Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig for €60m.

Offered him a 6-year contract with a €500 million release clause.

Yesterday, Dani Olmo became a free agent.

He's not just unable to play for Barcelona and free to sign for free with any other club. Barcelona will have to pay him for the 6 seasons contract he signed even if he never plays for them again. That amounts to €48m for the 6 seasons.

That's a problem for a club that's struggling financially.

Which is crazy because in 2019, same Barcelona became the first club to surpass €1 billion in revenue.

So, what happened?

They started hanging their coat where their hand cannot reach in order to compete with Real Madrid, they started throwing money around buying over priced expensive players, who were later sold for far less, after they flopped.

Again, you can't discuss Barcelona's financial problems without mentioning Lionel Messi.

But perhaps the most culpable should be the terrible Barcelona leadership from Laporta to Sandro Rosell to Bartomeu, that allowed itself to be wrecked by the demands of the brilliant Argentine and his father.

Laporta is often held up as someone coming in to solve the problems created by Bartomeu, but that's false. He started the problems.

Between 2005 when Messi had his first senior contract renewal to €1 million per year, Laporta renewed his contract yearly for 4 years between 2005 and 2009, taking him from the €1 million to €12.5 million annually.

From then on, it was a straight line to Barcelona getting financially wrecked.

When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Madrid in 2009, Messi's salary demands became even more prominent and higher.

Cristiano Ronaldo renegotiated his contract with Real Madrid two times after joining them in 2009, going from €32.7m in 2013 to the €34.8m he was earning when he left to join Juventus for €100m in 2018.

Within that same timeframe, Messi renegotiated his contract 5 times, going from €20m in 2013 to €70m in 2018.

To put things in context, Messi's earnings when he left for free in 2021 accounted for:

• 21.9% of Barcelona's total annual revenue
• 28.3% of Barcelona's total wage bill

Since he left in 2021 to join PSG for free, Barcelona has gone through a lot of financial challenges. Yet, the man who wrecked Barcelona left shedding crocodile tears and the clubs fans continue to hero worship the very person, whose greedy attitude contributed massively in pulling the club into debt.

If I talk now Messi and Barcelona fans will shut me down. What do l know self? .