The Argentine superstar has completed his move to PSG, ending his more than 20 years association with Barcelona
Nigerian legend Austin Okocha has provided a tongue-in-cheek reaction to news of Lionel Messi’s massive weekly wage at new club Paris Saint Germain.
Messi has been at Barcelona since he was a kid and was on the way to being a one-club man until his contract expired this summer.
And after playing 778 games, scoring 672 goals, winning ten La Liga titles and four Champions League honours in more than two decades in Catalonia, the Argentine playmaker has finally departed Spain for the riches in Paris.
Though secured as a free agent, Messi will receive a sign-on fee of £25 million. The 32-year-old has also inked a two-year contract – with an option of a third – which will see him earn a weekly pay of £500,000.
Those astronomical figures have left former Super Eagles skipper Okocha dazed.
Okocha was himself a mega-signing when PSG paid an African record transfer fee of £12.4 million for his services immediately after the France ’98 FIFA World Cup.
But the former Bolton Wanderers playmaker confessed he didn’t earn anywhere close to what Messi is set to be paid every seven days.
“I came too early, and Messi came at the right time,” Okocha joked, as per the Guardian via BBC’s Shina Okeleji.
“If I was paid such amount of money in my playing days, maybe I would have stayed back in France forever. I wouldn’t have thought of coming to Nigeria.”
The addition of Messi to a PSG side that already boasts the attacking talents of Brazil’s Neymar Junior, Frenchman Kylian Mbappe and Argentine midfielder Angel Di Maria automatically places the dethroned French champions as the favourites for Ligue 1 and Champions League this season.
