Messi ‘asked Barcelona for jet, luxury box for Suarez, €10m bonus’ before PSG move

Details of Lionel Messi’s contract extension talks with Barcelona in 2020 have been leaked by Spanish newspaper, El Mundo.

Messi was in talks over extending his stay with the LaLiga club at the time, prior to him trying to force a move away in the same summer.

He ultimately remained at the Nou Camp before leaving the following year to join Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year contract.

A series of emails exchanged between the player’s father and agent, Jorge Mendes, his lawyers and then-Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and then-CEO Oscar Grau, showed that all of Messi’s requests were accepted by the club, apart from the Argentine’s demand to remove his €700 million (£613m) release clause.

Instead, the player wanted to have a symbolic €10,000 (£8,750) release clause should he wish to leave the club at any time.

Messi also demanded his family be given access to a luxury box at Camp Nou. Also, he asked for his friend and team-mate at the time, Luis Suarez, to have the same access for a separate box at the stadium.

Messi also wanted the club to give him a private jet, to fly him and his family to and from Argentina for the Christmas holidays.

Furthermore, Messi wanted a €10m (£8.75m) signing on bonus for agreeing on a new deal and recovering the wage cut that he had agreed during the pandemic with an interest rate of three per cent.