FC BARCELONA has signed Lionel 'Leo' Messi up for another four years until 2021 inclusive – but with what has been dubbed an 'anti-PSG' or 'anti-Manchester City' clause of €700 million.
This means it is practically impossible for Messi to break his contract with Barça because of the cost, unlike Brazilian ace Neymar who moved to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) this summer after the French club agreed to pay his €230m penalty for breaking off with the Spanish team before his term expired.
Unless the Argentinian decides to leave and his future club is willing to stump up the €700m to take him on, he will have played for Barça for 17 seasons by the time his contract runs out in 2021.
So far, the 30-year-old, with his long-running team, has won eight premier league, or Liga titles, four Champions' Leagues, five Copas del Rey, seven Spanish SuperCups, or Supercopas, three European SuperCups, and three World Club titles – equalling the 30 won by his colleague Andrés Iniesta, currently the Barça player with the most silverware in the team's history.
During his time with FC Barcelona, Messi has scored 523 goals in 602 matches and is the highest scorer not only in the club's history but also in that of the Spanish premier league, having overtaken previous 'goal-scoring king', the legendary Telmo Zarra.
The star player, who grew up in a poverty-stricken neighbourhood in the town of Rosario, Santa Fe province, Argentina, arrived in Barcelona for the first time in the year 2000, aged just 13, the first time he had been abroad or away from his family.
He had been playing for Newell's Old Boys since the age of seven and attempted to sign up for River Plate in Buenos Aires in August 2000, but the contract fell through.
Messi was snapped up by Barça's junior A team after scoring six goals during a practice the day after his flight to Spain, and the club agreed to pay for his treatment for a growth hormone deficiency he had been diagnosed with in early childhood.
His first match in the mainstream league team was in 2004, when he was barely 17, against Oporto, but his official début was the following season, which started with a match against Espanyol, and weeks later, he would score his first goal for Barça in a home match against Albacete.
Messi won his first Ballon d'Or in 2009, aged 22, and currently has four to his name.
