Bonus of €10 million, free private box at the Camp Nou for Messi and Suarez: List of Lionel Messi's reported demands to sign new Barcelona contract in 2020

After analyzing a series of emails and documents, Spanish outlet El Mundo has released a detailed report on the demands Lionel Messi allegedly made to Barcelona in the summer of 2020.

Having enjoyed a trophy-laden 17-season spell with the Barcelona senior team, Lionel Messi left as a free agent at the end of his contract in the summer of 2021. As per the deputy director of El Mundo, Esteban Urreiztieta, Messi sat with Barca to discuss his renewal in the summer of 2020, but his demands put the club off.

Revealing how his team got their hands on emails and documents exchanged between then-Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu and Lionel Messi’s camp, Urreiztieta said (via Cope):

“We have had access to thousands of emails. The Mossos overturned their devices with what is known as 'BarçaGate' and we have had access to all the material intervened by the police.”

Messi allegedly asked Barcelona to give him a €10 million signing bonus, restore his salary back to its pre-pandemic levels, and give him 3% interest on deferred wages. He also wanted his €700 million release clause to be replaced with a meager €10,000 one, which would have made it easier for him to leave Barcelona. Finally, he demanded a free private box at Camp Nou for him and his friend Luis Suarez, and a private jet for him to visit his family in Argentina during Christmas.

Urreiztieta added:

“We were talking about a clean contract of 75 million euros per season, in what was the most important contract signed in world sport.”

Bartomeu did not give in to Lionel Messi’s astronomical contract renewal demands, but the Argentine anyway left the club a year later.

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Joan Laporta was confident of keeping Lionel Messi at Barcelona before the presidential elections

In March 2021, Joan Laporta replaced Bartomeu as president of the Catalonian club. While he had other merits, his presidential campaign was primarily pulled by the promises he made about Messi’s future. Laporta claimed that he had a great relationship with the Argentine, and only he had a shot at keeping him at Camp Nou.

He had said during a debate (via Bleacher Report):

“I am sure that if someone else wins the election [other than me], Messi won't stay at the club.

“I have a good relationship with him; there's a lot of respect.”

Of course, Laporta failed to keep Messi at Barca, but the president has done well to bounce back. Laporta has created a formidable team that seems capable of fighting on all fronts this season.