MADRID – It’s Neymar first. Then Cristiano Ronaldo. And now, most likely, it will be Lionel Messi.
The Spanish league is about to see the most sensible player leave one of their clubs, all within 4 years.
Messi’s departure would be another unwanted setback for the League, which he hopes to face the coup as he did after Neymar and Ronaldo’s departure. The league was not financially affected after Neymar’s departure from Barcelona or Ronaldo from Real Madrid. It has continued to grow and has still made a lot of money from television rights agreements.
But wasting Messi can be a bigger problem, because for the first time in years, the league would have one of the two players who have combined to win 11 World Player of the Year awards recently. There would still be Luka Modric at Real Madrid, who ended a streak of Ronaldo and Messi in 2018, but the Croatian is just as popular.
The league has benefited from Messi’s presence after Ronaldo’s departure, but would no longer have the same stellar power.
Despite considerations when Ronaldo joined Juventus in 2018, the league was quick to boast that his departure had little effect on his finances. He did not discover any relief in television rights revenue and did not obtain requests for refunds from the broadcasters. The league has continued to see a steady build-up in the audience.
The league president, Javier Tebas, is not so sure about Messi’s departure.
“Although they were not satisfied in Madrid when Ronaldo left, his departure has had virtually no effect because we have been running for years so that the ‘LaLiga’ logo goes beyond its players,” Tebas told the Catalan radio stadium RAC1 in June. is another in Messi’s case. Messi is the most productive player in football history. We were lucky enough to have him in our league.
“Messi’s departure would be remarkable,” Thebes said. “He is an icon of Spanish football, of La Liga, and I would ask him to “finish his career in our League “where we gave him so much affection”.
Thebes said Messi added a significant price to the league, but that his absence would be “a disaster.”
“We have TV contracts signed with or without Messi,” he said.
Thebes has worked to make the league for the most productive players.
He pressed for the Spanish government to replace some of its existing tax regulations that would possibly have frightened some players. The local tax government has been attacking football stars in recent years, accusing several of them of fraud for the way they have interpreted local laws, i.e. with respect to the rights of symbols. Ronaldo and Messi were some of the many players attacked, and Messi was convicted in 2017. Tax regulations in Italy and France are less stringent for players than in Spain.
Thebes also supports the “Beckham Act” retreat, which once granted tax exemptions to foreign actors in Spain but was amended a few years ago to prevent them from benefiting from it.
Since Neymar left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, Spain has won some top players. Last year, Antoine Griezmann moved from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona, Eden Hazard signed for Real Madrid and young Portuguese Joel Félix joined at Atletico Madrid.
Real Madrid still has Toni Kroos, Vin-cius Junior, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos, while Barcelona has Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets, although he can also lose Luis Suarez.
However, none of them come close to Ronaldo or Messi. And if the Argentine striker leaves, only time will tell if the Spanish league can say that it has gotten bigger than any club or player.
———
More AP Football: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports
———
Azzoni Tales on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni
24/7 policy of the latest news and events