Lionel Messi is now ready to sue the five people that he believed were involved in the leak of his £492m Barcelona contract, MySportDab reports.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo published the full details of Lionel Messi’s mega contract at the Nou Camp on Sunday.
Messi signed the leaked contract back in 2017 and it expires this June when the 33-year-old can leave for free.
The leak from Barcelona revealed the combination of salary, image rights, variables and tax that Barcelona paid Messi on the contract amounts in total of €555,237,699 (£492m).
Messi and his representative were disappointed at the leak of his financial data from the club.
According to RAC1, The Argentine is now ready take legal actions against those involved .
Messi and his group of representatives believe that only five people at the club had access to his contract data.
The five people are former president Josep Maria Bartomeu; interim president, Carles Tusquets; former vice-president, Jordi Mestre; CEO Òscar Grau and Romàn Gómez Ponti.
Bartomeu, who resigned as Barcelona President in October, has revealed he was not involved in the leak.
‘It’s absolutely false, I was never involved in any leak,’ Bartomeu said in Spain.
‘This is a serious issue because it’s illegal to leak any professional contract details to the media.
‘Some people just accusations but this is not funny and it will end up as a court case.
‘Messi deserves everything he has today, professional or commercial reasons. Without the current pandemic, Barcelona would be able to pay those numbers.’
Barcelona Coach Ronald Koeman was also angry furious at the leaked contract and asked for the club to take action immediately.
Thanks to the leak, Messi is now the highest-paid sportsman of all-time, his Barcelona contract guarantees him €138m (£122m) a season in salary alone.
He received a contract ‘renewal fee’ of €115m (£102m) for accepting the new Barcelona contract in 2017.
MySportDab understands that Messi also takes home €79m (£69m) each year as a ‘loyalty’ bonus for staying at Barcelona.
With five months left on the contract, Messi has already earned €511m (£452m) before the expires this summer.
As a part of the shocking contract, Messi earned £616,172 (€695,748) from Barcelona for winning FIFA’s Best Player award during the 2018-19 football season.
The Argentine earns another guaranteed £3.1m (€3.5m) bonus if Barcelona win the Champions League, which they have failed to do since 2015.
