Laurence Grigorov enjoys watching football in his spare time and is a huge supporter and admirer of Leo Messi, who he considers to be the best player of all time. Recently Messi signed a contract extension at Barcelona which has pleased Laurence Grigorov as he is a huge supporter of Barcelona FC, as reported by Spanish football correspondent Guillem Balague on Yahoo Sports UK.
Leo Messi and Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu have made it official, their troth well and truly plighted maybe not until ‘death do us part’, but certainly up to the end of the 2021 season by which team the magician from Rosario in Argentina will be 34 years old.
The renewal of vows occurred as far back as last June when, with one exception, the minutiae of the deal were worked out by the board and Jorge Messi, Leo’s father, who signed in his behalf with the legal mandate he has to do so.
It was announced by Barcelona back in July that the agreement was in place and the only thing that was missing was in fact ‘the picture’ and the small detail of Messi’s signature.
And indeed everything was in place and in reality, Messi never, ever really considered the prospect of leaving Barcelona. He has established an entourage with a tiny but compact army of people working for him and has built for himself and his family an enviable lifestyle around Barcelona that he adores.
The wages are the same as those agreed back in July and the renewal bonus had also been previously negotiated.
But Barcelona were absolutely desperate for ‘that picture’ to be taken as soon as possible simply because despite the fact that nobody expected him to leave, despite the fact there was an agreement already in place and he was already being paid according to that agreement, Barcelona knew that if that contract had been taken to law he could have been free to leave on January 1.
After winning the Golden Boot, Messi sent a message on Instagram saying: “I have always said that I don’t consider myself to be a striker, but I have been lucky enough to always score goals and win individual prizes.
“As I have progressed off the field, I think I have also done so on the pitch. I have improved and added things to my game and I enjoy myself more and more every day as a player.”
Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde was full of praise for Lionel Messi after the Argentine superstar signed a new four-year contract with the club.
He went on to thank the staff, his fellow professionals and reading between the lines it was clearly his way of saying that this was his home and where he wanted to be.
Back to the ‘minor detail’ that has changed in his contract since it was first agreed back in June. Back then his buyout clause stood at €300m. Unfortunately in the present climate, there are some clubs out there – well, probably two, maximum three – that bearing in mind the sort of money paid for players like Neymar and Dembele, and also the sort of sums being offered for someone like Coutinho that might think €300m for the greatest player ever to lace on a pair of boots constituted something of a bargain.
The result is that his new buyout clause now stands at €700m. Now that should put everyone else off. Shouldn’t it?