Every football club in the world wants to buy Lionel Messi, but there are only a few that can even begin to think about maybe trying to buy him, because Messi would cost a truly absurd amount of money. We'll start with Lionel Messi's $352.7 million release clause, a sum so insanely high that until a few weeks ago it was unfathomable that anyone would ever pay it, even for the best footballer ever.
Then PSG came along and paid Neymar's similarly-staggering release clause ($261 million) and all bets were off. Now, there's talk of Manchester City buying out Messi's contract at Barcelona so he can rush into the waiting arms of Pep Guardiola.
It's hard to believe even Manchester City, with all their oil money, could pull off such a move. In addition to Messi's release clause, they would need to pay his salary. Messi's new contract with Barcelona, which he has not yet signed, reportedly will pay him $645,000 per week, or roughly $33.5 million per year.
Let's say Messi signs the exact contract he would have with Barcelona, but with Manchester City. City would be paying $134 million over four years before figuring in bonuses or the fact that City would probably need to give him a raise to lure him from Barcelona.
So, at minimum, Manchester City would be committing $486.7 million to Messi's transfer. Again, that's the minimum. Add in bonuses for various awards Messi would probably win and Manchester City giving Messi more money just to show off how much money they have, and Messi could easily cost the better part of a billion dollars. And, with the way the market is going, any reasonable number we throw out here would probably be low.
So, yeah. From a City perspective, better to wait and hope Messi doesn't sign his new contract and becomes a free agent.
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