Messi’s €555m contract biggest in sport?

Lionel Messi's current contract with Barcelona is reportedly worth up to €555m (£492m) over four seasons -- thought to be the biggest pay deal ever for an athlete.

Spain's El Mundo newspaper said it had access to the document the footballing star signed with the Catalan club in 2017, which included fixed incomes and extras that could reach nearly €138m (£122m) each season.

Barcelona denied any responsibility for the publication of the contract and said they will take legal action against Spanish newspaper El Mundo for publishing Lionel Messi's contract with the club.

The report said the contract, which was previously described by French newspaper L'Equipe as the most lucrative in football, had contributed to the club's recent financial troubles, which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Barca's last accounts showed their net debt had doubled to 488 million euros ($592.24 million), while the club's interim president Carles Tusquets said recently they had been forced to delay payments to players.

The 33-year-old Argentinian -- considered by many to be the best footballer ever -- would have to pay about half of that amount in taxes in Spain. The report said Messi had already secured more than €510m (£452m) of the total contract, which the newspaper said was the most expensive contract ever paid to an athlete.

Messi, who has spent his entire career at the club after joining in 2000 as a youth player, sees his contract with the Catalans run out this year. He had asked to leave with immediate effect at the end of last season after expressing unhappiness with the direction being taken by the club.

It followed his side's humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, one of the worst in the player's career and in the club's history.

That loss capped a difficult season for Barcelona -- the first without a title since 2007-08. Messi had his transfer request rejected by the club but will be able to leave for free when this season ends.

Don Balon are reporting that Messi is furious about the leak of a document by El Mundo. The report details that the Argentinian had recently warned the club that if any further leaks affected him or his family he would be off, and now it seems that he will announce exactly that over the course of the next few days.