No, FC Barcelona is not back in 2020. But it has officially said goodbye to a dark period in its recent history. Under the chairmanship of Josep Maria Bartomeu, the Catalan club had experienced significant financial difficulties to the point of having to say goodbye to the Lionel Messi legend. Unable to pay the Argentinian salary, Barça had not also been helped by the Covid crisis. At the time, the club had negotiated a postponement of wages for the workforce. A “debt” that the club continued to drag for a long time.
At the time, the case of Gérard Piqué had notably been talked about. President Bartomeu had thus given pharaonic wages to the last summer recruits and the Barcelonais having extended. As a result, the Spanish press revealed that Barça owed no less than 50 million euros to Piqué due to the postponement of remuneration during the pandemic. An XXL sum that the player had partially recovered. Because in the middle of the season, he had decided to put an end to his career and had agreed to make a cross on a substantial part of his salary.
Barça paid everything
But the former Spanish international was not the only player in this case. The club also had to pay the salaries of several players like Samuel Umtiti who received a colossal salary of 20 million euros or even Philippe Coutinho and Lionel Messi. This Saturday, Sport reveals that in recent days, Barça has finally finished reimbursing the wages of these players. The Catalan club management company had decided to spread reimbursements in eight payments: December 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, and June 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The last payment planned by the agreement on June 30, 2025 has just been validated by the club's financial service.
In total, Barça will drop 16 million euros to pay the last unpaid unpaid. This concerns 20 players who were part of the first team, and nine of the best paid at Barça Atlètic but also Ronald Koeman and his 3 assistants. The players concerned are none other than Lionel Messi, Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé, Miralem Pjanic, Sergi Roberto, Neto, Dest, Braithwaite, or even Junior Firpo, Aleñá, Matheus Fernandes, Pedri, Trincao, Ansu Fati, Ronald Araujo and Riqui Puig. Barça has finally finished with the demons of the past.
