FOUR-TIME WORLD Player of the Year Lionel Messi has agreed terms on a new contract with Spanish giants Barcelona.
The club confirmed the news in a statement on their website.
“FC Barcelona has reached an agreement to adjust the terms in the contract binding Leo Messi to the club as a professional first team player. The revised and updated contract will be signed over the next few days.”
The deal is expected to see Messi overtake Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo as the biggest earner in world football and according to a report on the website of Barcelona-based newspaper Sport, it is worth €20m per season (£16.3m), plus further incentives.
“There is the will within the club that he becomes the best paid player in the world,” Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu said in an exclusive interview with AFP back in March.
“He is the number one and, as we have said various times, he also deserves to be the best paid player in the world.”
Messi has become a legend at Barcelona since making his debut in 2004 scoring 354 goals in 424 games making him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Should Barca beat Atletico Madrid tomorrow the Argentine will win his seventh La Liga title and his 22nd trophy overall with the Catalans, including three Champions League titles.
However, despite scoring over 40 goals for a fifth consecutive campaign, Messi has had his most difficult year both on and off the field in his career.
The 26-year-old appeared in court in September over tax fraud allegations relating to his image rights, whilst the arrival of Brazilian star Neymar at Barcelona this season has challenged his position as top dog at the club.
Messi was also struck down by persistent hamstring injuries during the first-half of the season and returned to Argentina for a month in December to rest and recuperate away from the spotlight in the Catalan capital.
Sour grapes from Cheika. The knee on Conway was by far the worst incident in the game. Australians are always terrible losers though.
@Jim Demps: so are we to be fair
@domas1507: disagree! By international standards (us, English, Australia) we’re not too bad. Honest about how shite we are when we are if anything
@Jim Demps: Entirely agree… have seen this kind of cynical ‘tackle attempt’ a few times now and it’s clearly not intended to stop the score, but to injure the scorer.
These need to be picked up and sin-binned.
@domas1507: you definitely get off on self flagellation.
@Bruce Van der Gutschmitzer: wrong comment, wrong place.
@domas1507: I never get this. Everyone last week said Australia deserved to win, that they had our number and out played us. We also had justified complaints about some shoddy refereeing, but it wasn’t sour grapes, it’s just another element of the game you can dissect.
@Conor Paddington: some would say complaining about refereeing decisions after you loose, justified or not, is being a bad looser
@Conor Paddington: that’s nonsense, you can rationally dissect a game and be honest whether your team win or lose, and refereeing is a part of that. The ref was bad last week and that is not why Ireland lost amd Australia deserved to win. That is not sour grapes.
@Conor Paddington: I’m not talking about last weeks game exactly. It’s easy be a gracious in defeat when you clearly loose. The sign of a gracious loser is is accepting defeat when you think you should have won. Think ireland v new Zealand in Dublin and a certain French striker for examples of what I mean.
@Jim Demps: the knee? He was legitimately trying to stop a try , he was hardly just going to let him stroll in
@domas1507: @domas1507: well a blatant double handball and determined ignorance of fifa officials is fair enough to critique. Neglecting to give yellows for a knock out shoulder charge and a clothesline would wind you up too. In that case, I’m a sour c¿nt!
@Trevor Reilly: I think he was def trying to injure him… barely laid a hand on him but still dropped the knee into him. Sorry, but for me it was deliberate.
@Bruce Van der Gutschmitzer: don’t be harsh on yourself, you’re just a bad looser
@Jim Demps:
Every country have their whingers and complainers. Australians are no different to ourselves, England, Wales etc.
@domas1507: like true troll resentment feeds me!
@Trevor Reilly: There is nowhere on the field that you are allowed to tackle with the knee. If he was legitimately trying to stop a score why not try to get under the ball with his arms/body?
I like Australia. But they play some highly questionable rugby when it comes to legality. Cheika can do one if he’s going to complain about off-the-ball incidents considering there were a raft of Australian incidents both last and this week.
Cheika can F right off… his players were hitting Irish players off he ball and / or late all evening and getting away with it most of the time!!
Make no mistake. They know that deep down theyll never be able to force Ireland into infringement issues.
I see us getting it done in Sydney. #TeamOfUs
Again some awful referee decision even with TV match officials and touch judges. Hard to understand that they cannot get it right?
I know some will think it’s pedantic but can we stop with this ‘first win in Australia in 39 years’ business it’s not. It’s Ireland’s first away win against Australia. I saw Ireland win in Adelaide 15 years ago.
@Ted Od: first away win against Australia sorry in 39 years.
@Ted Od: it’s pedantic!
That ref was the Pitts … who let him on a pitch…. he was very 2 sided….well take the win .
@Sean Beirne: Two sided? Maybe one side too many? Or not…
Bloody whinging Aussies ( said in an Alf Stewart voice )
It was a shocking challenge
…definitely should be cited