Lionel Messi: How much is he worth?

Amongst all the frantic discussions concerning the transfer market and who is going where, how about considering the player who might never be listed on the transfer market ever in the future? Yes, you got it right, we are talking about the greatest player of his generation- Lionel Messi. How much is he really worth? Or is he priceless?

The FC Barcelona board managed maybe the most canny transfer move of all time some 12 years back by signing a 13-year old Messi from his childhood club Newell’s Old Boys for absolutely no money at all. All they did was cover the cost of medical treatment for the growth hormone deficiency problem the young Argentine was suffering from.

Now Messi stands as the outstanding player of this era and rival clubs even fear to imagine how much they will have to pay for luring him from Barcelona. But not very long ago an anonymous Russian club did put forth a staggering bid of well over $300 million which reportedly exceeded his buyout clause but Messi himself rejected the offer. From this it seems that no amount of money will be enough of a temptation for the Argentine until and unless he badly falls out with the management which, unfortunately for rival clubs, doesn’t seem like happening in the near future with a contract until 2018 having been recently signed.

Talking about the reported amount- around $320 million, for a reference, that is more than twice of what heavy-spending Monaco are ready to pay for superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Other players don’t even come close- the next best is Gareth Bale who is supposed to be worth around half the amount of Ronaldo.

There are no two views on the fact that FC Barcelona are heavily dependent on Messi and the board would do anything and everything to keep him on board. Although the recent signing of Neymar would reduce the reliance on the Argentine national but that doesn’t decrease his value to the team even a small bit. He is, ultimately, the player who can raise the confidence of the team and have an effect on the game by just being present on the pitch.

If- and it’a a very big if- Lionel Messi is ever to be listed on the transfer market, all past transfer records are sure to be shattered and that too by a very big margin. But even if some club is able to bid an out-of-the-world amount sometime in the future, will Messi agree to the transfer? After all, he has grown up playing the La Masia style of football and we have seen how he struggles to fit into the Argentina national team which plays in a totally different fashion.

So, we come back to the question: How much is Lionel Messi actually worth? Difficult to say for sure. Will any club be able to lure him away from Barcelona just with the help of some jaw-dropping amount of money? Most probably no. Is he simply invaluable? All said and done, probably yes.