Lionel Messi reportedly receives €30 million ($33 million) a year to be a tourism ambassador for ... [+]
The eye-opening sum that Lionel Messi receives from Saudi Arabia to be a tourism ambassador for the Kingdom, and which has allegedly angered Paris Saint Germain's Qatari owners, has been revealed in a report by AS' correspondent in the French capital.
Messi is currently suspended by his club for two weeks, meaning he will miss a pair of Ligue 1 games and be docked a fortnight's pay.
With Messi's earnings put at $65 million on-field and $65 million off-field in Forbes' latest list of the World's Highest-Paid Athletes, where he finished second to generational rival Cristiano Ronaldo, the Argentine will miss out on roughly $2.7 million in wages as a consequence.
Messi received the punishment for traveling to Saudi Arabia without PSG's permission to carry out commitments related to his role as a tourism ambassador in the Middle Eastern country.
He had already put the trip back twice and couldn't postpone a third time. But with PSG having lost 3-1 at home to Lorient on Sunday, a training session was called on Monday which Messi didn't attend and therefore led to him being chastised.
The following day, Fabrizio Romano reported that the Messi camp led by the player's father and agent Jorge Messi informed PSG a month ago that the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner will not extend his contract at the Parc des Princes when it expires on June 30.
While he has been most strongly linked with a return to FC Barcelona, Messi also has offers on the table from Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia according to multiple sources.
As Romano and the Saudi Gazette reported last month that Messi has been offered €400 million ($440 million) a year, agent Marco Kirdermir told Radio Marca that a $600 million proposal awaits the 35-year-old at the club linked to the King of Saudi Arabia.
Kirdemir offered his opinion that Messi wouldn't have been punished had he not traveled to a country that has political tensions with Qatar.
Over at AS, their correspondent in Paris, Andres Onrubia, who dropped the exclusive that PSG are ready to let Neymar go out on loan, reported that the figure Messi earns for his role as a tourism ambassador stands at €30 million ($33 million) a year.
The fee comes as a wake up call to FC Barcelona and their fans. In their quest to see their greatest ever player don Blaugrana again, a Barca riddled with debts can only offer Messi €25 million ($27.5 million) a year according to SPORT, which further underlines the fact that the number '10' would not be moving back to his boyhood outfit for money.
Marco Kirdermir