LIONEL MESSI’S transfer to Paris Saint-Germain is reportedly impossible – because his £95million salary is more than Neymar and Kylian Mbappe’s COMBINED.
The Argentina great, 33, told Barcelona he wanted to quit the club he joined almost 20 years ago following a major fallout with the board.
Paris Saint-Germain look set to be priced out of a transfer for Lionel Messi due to his mammoth wages which average around £95m per yearCredit: Getty Images – Getty
And it was thought mega-rich PSG, essentially bankrolled by the Qatari state, would be among the front-runners tussling for Messi’s signature.
But according to L’Equipe, even the Ligue 1 champions will not be able to afford the mind-boggling wages – regardless of whether there is a transfer fee.
Messi earns around £64m per year in basic wages – approximately £1.2m per week.
But he then pockets extra for signing, staying and winning trophies.
It is said appearing in 60 per cent of matches until his Barcelona contract expiry bumps his average earnings up to £95m.
Add in winning the treble and Fifa’s Player of the Year award to boost that by another £15m.
The crazy numbers dwarf the money earned by PSG’s two current superstars.
Neymar bags around £620,000 per week as the French side’s highest-paid player, working out as £32.2m across 12 months.
That meant he was on more than the entire Atalanta squad they scraped past in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Mbappe is next on around £280,000 per week – or £14.5m a year – while Thiago Silva, whose contract expired and is now set to sign for Chelsea, was on £190,000 per week, which equated to just shy of £10m across the year.
It means together, the PSG front pair earn around £47m – well below Messi’s basic salary before bonus are even taken into consideration.
And with PSG seemingly out of the question, Manchester City will be even more confident of a deal.
The Etihad club are in pole position to sign Messi should he be allowed to leave Barca – with Pep Guardiola ready for a reunion and reports suggesting Jorge Messi, the legend’s dad, has flown to Manchester to discuss a transfer.
City chief executive Ferran Soriano believes that his side will successfully swoop in and take the six-time Ballon d’Or winner for free.
The 53-year-old, however, has reached out to Messi’s camp to assure them that City can afford to sign him – even if they have to pay a transfer fee on top of his mammoth weekly wages.
Messi believes he is entitled to leave for free due to a clause in his contract but the Nou Camp side insist anyone wanting to buy their captain must stump up £631m.
Chelsea and Inter Milan continue to be linked, but Manchester United are thought to be out of the chase.
Mbappe and Neymar together earn around £47m per year on their current PSG contractsCredit: Reuters
Ally McCoist hopes that Messi will come to the Premier League
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
