Messi contract stokes a debate
TOP CLASS Suarez urges Barcelona to hold onto Argentine after their CEO suggests club won’t break the bank to keep him
BARCELONA: Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has hit back at comments by the club’s CEO that the Catalan giants won’t “go crazy” when negotiating a new contract for five-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi.
Barca CEO Oscar Grau said on Wednesday that a new deal for Messi, who only has 18 months left on his current deal, was being negotiated with “common sense and discretion”.
“With Messi what you have to do is give him a new contract, not have common sense,” said Suarez after netting his 100th Barca goal in just 120 appearances as they progressed to the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey with a 3-1 win over Athletic Bilbao. Messi and Neymar scored the other two goals for Barca.
Despite posting a record turnover of €679 million last season, a series of expensive new contracts for the likes of Neymar and Suarez mean Barcelona are close to overstepping the 70 per cent limit of turnover spent on salaries imposed by UEFA’s financial fair-play laws.
On the field, Messi proved the match-winner once again on Wednesday as he scored from a free-kick for the third time in as many games this year 11 minutes from time to edge out Athletic 4-3 on aggregate.
“I don’t know what the CEO said, but tell me one game in which Leo Messi hasn’t been decisive,” said Barca coach Luis Enrique.
“I don’t know about numbers, I know about football. We all want to enjoy watching Messi here for many more years, nothing else matters for me.”
Meanwhile, Messi’s free-kick goal put him in a position to establish himself as Barcelona’s best free-kick taker of all-time, needing only one more to surpass Ronald Koeman’s record with the Catalan club.
“Congratulations on scoring your 26th free kick goal,” the former Netherlands defender wrote on Twitter after Messi’s superb left-foot strike. “One to go to break another record.”
Messi’s three goals came in the first three matches of the year, and all were decisive.
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100th iN aLL coMpetitioNs for Barca. He oNLy Needed 120 Matches to reach that LaNdMarK. (Matches: 57)
La Liga, Copa deL Rey, ChaMpioNs League, Uefa Super Cup, CLub WorLd Cup (Matches: 49) La Liga, Copa deL Rey, SpaNish Super Cup (Matches: 23)
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