Barcelona crisis is costing Messi 100k euros a day

The Copa America has concluded, and it was dream ending for Lionel Messi, who finally lifted his first major international trophy. Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 in the final, and now the Argentine captain needs to finally untangle the contract mess that he has with FC Barcelona.

Messi would want to settle his contract extension as soon as possible, and the club has the same objective. Interestingly, Marca has claimed that according to their calculations, the Argentine is losing approximately 100,000 euros for each day that he remains a free agent.

It has previously been revealed that Messi used to earn a gross total of 138.9 million euros per season at Barcelona. However, since his contract expired on June 30, he is no longer raking in revenue from the club and will also be facing a massive pay cut even if they manage to come to a renewal agreement in the coming weeks.

It is believed that Barcelona is offering somewhere in the vicinity of almost a 50% pay cut on a two-year extension for the Argentine. Even with a reduced salary though, the club is still unable to finalise the deal because they are still way over the allowable salary cap based on La Liga Santander's financial fair play regulations.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta keeps saying that he is optimistic about the outcome, but manager Ronald Koeman has already admitted that he is worried about the situation. The club's financial crisis is so deep that apart from Messi, they are still unable to officially register their other new signings this summer, namely Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Emerson Royal.

Messi may want to stay with Barcelona, but it remains to be seen if the club can offload more valuable players quickly in order to free up space in the salary cap. If they fail, the six-time Ballon d'Or winner will need to peddle his wares elsewhere.