CELEBRITY
BARCELONA TO OPEN CONTRACT TALKS WITH LIONEL MESSI & OTHER KEY STARS
Barcelona are eager to open contract talks with forward Lionel Messi next week to ensure he remains at the club after 2021.
The Argentine recently let a clause in his contract – which would have allowed him to leave the club for free this summer – expire, suggesting that he still sees a future for himself at Camp Nou.
Barcelona chiefs have long expressed a desire to keep Messi at the club for as long as possible, with rumours of a lifetime contract emerging. While that may not be true, Cope note that Barça intend to sit down with Messi in the coming days to begin negotiating a new deal. The story has since been corroborated by Sport, who add that Messi is still ‘full of excitement and motivation’ to continue adding to his unparalleled legacy at Camp Nou.
The soon-to-be 33-year-old also has his sights on a few more Ballons d’Or and there is an acceptance that staying at Barcelona will likely give him the best chance to win those individual awards.
However, given his age, talks will only ever be centred around short-term extensions to his €70m-a-year deal, rather than a long-term deal.
Messi’s contract is the most pressing in the current squad, but Mundo Deportivo note that Barcelona are eager to begin working on new deals for a number of their top stars as nobody in the first team is tied to the club past 2024 as it stands.
When it comes to the rest of the players whose contracts expire in 2021, Barcelona aren’t too fussed.
Ivan Rakitić and Arturo Vidal are up for sale, Luis Suárez can leave that summer if he doesn’t trigger his automatic extension and Riqui Puig’s deal can be extended by two years, leaving only academy midfielder Álex Collado to worry about.
However, it’s a different story for the 2022 bunch. Marc-André ter Stegen and Ansu Fati are two top priorities, while Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto also need negotiations. Nélson Semedo will be offered a new contract if he doesn’t leave this summer, and there’s also the future of Ousmane Dembélé to sort out.
As of now, the focus is on Messi, Ter Stegen, Fati and Semedo, but plans are being put in place to speak with all the others at some point down the line.
-90min
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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