Barcelona have once again made Lionel Messi the highest-paid soccer player in the world after signing him to a new contract according to ESPN FC.
Messi’s current deal ends in June 2018 and contains a 250 million euro release clause, and those details are apparently set to remain unchanged, but Spanish newspaper El Pais claims he will receive a pay-rise from 13 million euros to 20 million euros ($27 million) net a season, not including incentives.
Talks on an improved deal have been ongoing since last autumn, when it became clear that teammate Neymar and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo were imposing on his status as the world’s best-paid player.
Messi is by most accounts (excluding mines) the best soccer player on planet earth at the moment, and Barcelona were under pressure to pay him like it because there were sharks circling to come swoop him.