Barcelona are notorious for the way they target and tap up players on opposing teams. For two years all Cesc Fabregas and Arsenal heard from the Camp Nou were comments from Barcelona players and officials about how much they wanted the Arsenal captain to come and join them. And they eventually got their man.
This summer Barcelona tried a similar tactic with Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva, but as Real Madrid found out in their pursuit of Carlo Ancelotti this summer, PSG will not be bullied into selling a player by anyone.
PSG president Sheikh Nasser Al-Khelaifi is not impressed with Barca’s attempt to tap up Silva, and he says that if they continue their interest in the Brazilian definer, that PSG will go after Lionel Messi!
“If Barca pay the buy-out clause of Thiago Silva then I will meet Messi’s buy-out clause,” he told ActuSports.fr.
Messi’s buyout clause is a mouth-watering €250m, which is pocket change to PSG’s owners. The interesting thing is what would Messi do if PSG made such an offer and then offered to pay him something like €25-30m a year net after taxes?
In the past, Barcelona would have been very confident that faced with such an offer that Messi would have turned it down. But with the rumored rift between Messi and the club, is the Barca board still as confident that the world’s best player would turn down that kind of offer?
The other interesting part of the story is the growing dominance of PSG within European football. With the money they have, they can buy and sell whoever they want, whenever they want. No one is immune to the lure of Paris, winning titles and possibly European crowns. And that has to have the old powers in European football really worried, because none of their players are immune to the lure of PSG. And if that doesn’t worry the old guard, quickly approaching is the sun of Monaco, who will be challenging for European silverware in 12 months time.
