Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, considered one of the greatest players in the sport of all time, is said to have made fan cryptocurrencies as part of his financial package deal with French club Paris Saint-Germain, sources close to the matter have reported.
Messi, 34, who has been with FC Barcelona since he was 13, this week signed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), with the option of a third extension. His departure from Barcelona, with which he won four Champions League titles, was sealed after the Spanish La Liga fair play financial rules made it fiscally unfeasible for the club to continue to pay the star.
Messi has won FIFA's European Golden Shoe Best Player of the Year award six times each and will have an annual salary of $41 million (plus bonus) plus a $30 million PSG signing bonus, they say the reports . PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi said at a press conference this week that if accurate numbers for the deal were released, people would be "honestly shocked by the numbers we have."
With the exact details still shrouded in secrecy, the allocation and terms of the inclusion of cryptographic fan tokens in Messi's contract are unknown. Chiliz, a blockchain, which operates the sports token platform Socios, on which $PSG fan tokens are issued, revealed today that $PSG trading volumes rose to over $1,2 billion in the days leading up to the player's move.
Cheerleading tokens continue to be popular in global sports, with leading Turkish multi-sport club Fenerbahçe SK completing an initial pre-sale of 500.000 tokens on Ethereum this week, earning the club $1,75 million in 30 seconds.
PSG itself has been involved in crypto since 2018 through its partnership with blockchain platform Socios, which also counts Messi's former club FC Barcelona as a partner alongside a host of other high-profile international clubs that include Atlético Madrid, Juventus, Manchester City and many others.
Instant fan token sales are undeniably profitable for the clubs involved and have become even more prevalent during last year's pandemic-induced lockouts as a way to increase clubs' digital presence, increase revenue and maintain fan engagement. Still, critics of the model have argued that the voting rights associated with token ownership offer fans little more than a cosmetic word on club operations and represent a gratuitous monetization of fan engagement.