Barcelona Is Worried About Messi's 700 Release Million Clause

Well if you thought that Barcelona weren’t going to worry about Lionel Messi ever leaving Barcelona after signing his new contract, we were both wrong. Turns out that a €700m release clause isn’t enough to comfort the nightmares of Barcelona’s financial and strategy director Pancho Schroder.

“We set up a clause which we think is enough to have Messi retire at FC Barcelona,” he said.

“But having said that, we thought a year ago that the clause for Neymar was also good enough to retain the player, and that proved last summer not to be the case.

“Looking at the future, I think, is difficult, but I don’t have a crystal ball and these days things are getting a little bit crazy.”

Pancho Schroder | Sky Sports

Though the Argentine committed his future to the club in November after coming perilously close to the time at which he could have started to negotiate with other sides, given his previous deal was up in June 2018.

Included in the fresh terms, which run until 2021, is a €700m release clause designed to put rivals off making a move for the club icon, just as Paris Saint-Germain did to sign Neymar for €222m last August – a fee that many thought was impossible.

There really may never be a number high enough to comfort teams and their concerns around the best players leaving their squad. While it still remains incredibly unrealistic that Messi would ever be purchased at that price, its still a fascinating subplot.

Meanwhile, in Paris, PSG stakeholders think: “Hold our collective billion dollar beer”.