By
Tokoni Uti
February 22nd, 2024
Messi’s official joining to the PSG football club happened on Wednesday, August 11. The PSG president is confident that signing Messi will bring a flood of revenue for the football club.
On Wednesday, August 11, football sensation Lionel Messi officially joined the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club. The footballer has signed a two-year deal with the club with an annual salary of $41-million plus bonuses.
But despite this, the Paris Saint-Germain fan token has crashed more than 10% in the last 24-hours. At press time, the PSG token is down 8.22% trading at a price of $40.87. The market cap for PSG currently stands at $51.7 million.
However, over the last week, the PSG price has already doubled. It means that investors have celebrated the initial euphoria even before Messi’s official entry to the club.
Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is pretty confident of this deal. He added that the world will be “shocked” by the club’s financial revenues. The signing is likely to bring a windfall of commercial revenues for the club.
While speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Al Khelaifi said the club will release more precise figures of the deal. When Cristiano Ronaldo signed up for Juventus in 2018, the club sold $60 million worth of shirts in just a day’s time. Speaking at the conference on Wednesday, Messi said:
“I’m really looking forward to getting out there in the field, and my hopes of winning remain intact, and that is the reason why I am here. I want to win another Champions League and I think I’m in the right place to do that.”
Bidding goodbye to FC Barcelona
Messi’s ouster from FC Barcelona happened last week post the financial rules imposed by Spain’s La Liga. Thus, continuing a further five-year contract with Messi was financially inviable for the Barcelona club.
On Monday, Messi broke down in tears while bidding farewell to Barcelona. Even during Wednesday’s press conference, Messi said that the past week was an “emotional roller coaster”. Messi will be parting ways with Barcelona after two decades with the Catalan Club.
He has contributed over 672 goals while winning a total of 34 trophies. Messi has also won FIFA’s player of the year award and the European Golden Shoe being the continent’s top scorer for a record six times. Speaking to CNBC, Kieran Maguire, lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool said:
“They put 150,000 shirts on sale on their website last night at 10 p.m. U.K. time and they had sold out within seven minutes, so there are certainly opportunities from commercializing and monetizing the Messi name, and that will have allowed the club to have funded his salary”.
With the latest deal, Messi will be joining some of the top players in the PSG. This includes his former Barcelona teammate and Brazilian superstar Neymar. The 22-year-old French phenom Kylian Mbappe is also a part of the PSG football club.
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