MADRID – In a letter critical of Barcelona club officials, Lionel Messi said Monday he and his teammates are taking a 70% cut in salaries because of the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Messi wrote in a social media post that the players will also make donations so other club employees are not affected by the upheaval. “A lot has been said about Barcelona's first team and the players' salaries during the country's state of alarm," Messi wrote in the letter. “Before anything, we would like to make it clear that we have always wanted to reduce our salaries as we perfectly understand that this is an exceptional situation and we ALWAYS were the first ones to help the club when it asked.