The departure of Leo Messi left Barça orphaned at all levels. The club lost a reference player, the club’s all-time leading scorer and the great claim to Barça’s commercial area. A report from Brand Finance pointed out that the absence of the Rosario striker meant that Barça lost 137 million in brand value, a drop of 11%. In what? On the one hand, in the commercial plot, which refers to sponsors, it was estimated that 77 million would be lost. On the other, an additional 43 million in losses from the sale of T-shirts and other marketing products. And finally, 17 million in ticket sales and performance bonuses.
Aware of this circumstance, the club activated the machinery to relaunch other own brands. On the one hand, media players like Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets. On the other, the promising young Pedri and Ansu Fati. And finally, Memphis Depay, who had come to zero cost and had marveled in the early games at the Camp Nou. But amid injuries and poor results, none of these proposals ended up curdling.
Robert Lewandowski is the perfect prototype commercial commercial
The marketing area had repeatedly insisted on the need to have high-profile players to achieve better business deals. From t-shirt sales to ticket sales, to sponsors and friendlies. “We all saw it with Messi. If he was there, there was a price. If he wasn’t there, the price would plummet,” they point out from Barça’s noble offices. At the Camp Nou they had always insisted that sponsorship contracts were never conditioned on the presence of a particular footballer, “because you can’t guarantee that he will be there next year”. But he is aware that problems come “when it comes to renegotiating.” “We are a club with a lot of history and a lot of titles. We have a lot of attractions and nothing happens if one year we run out of media stars or if we have bad results. The problem is if this lasts over time. We can’t afford to be a Milan or a Manchester United “, comments a person who was negotiating for many years the main commercial agreements of the entity.
45+5
Barça confirms that the transfer has cost 45 million fixed and 5 variable
It is through this point that the arrival of Robert Lewandowski is best understood and explained. At the club they do not hide that the will would have been to sign Erling Haaland, a young striker with a lot of projection. The problem was the price of the transfer and the commissions. In addition, the footballer – represented by Mino Raiola – demanded a short contract and this made it difficult for Barça to repay the incorporation. Discarded the Norwegian, and with Mo Salah (Liverpool) out of reach, Lewandowski’s option appeared. “The price is high, yes. But sportingly it will give us a lot of performance and, above all, it will guarantee us that brand plus that we had lost,” they explain from the noble offices. In fact, the fact that the media has been talking about Polish for days is already interpreted at the club as a sign of success: “We were also looking for this.”
Lewandowski signs for four seasons with a $ 500 million clause
While waiting to present Lewandowski – it was supposed to take place on Monday but it was postponed – Barça confirmed that the cost of the operation is 50 (45 + 5) million, counting the fixed and the variable part, with an agreement for four seasons and a 500 million termination clause. Pending whether there will be a great presentation at the Camp Nou once the tour is over, Barça’s roadmap is to promote the Polish striker to the end. On Thursday, in Las Vegas, they are confident that he will do his first training session with his teammates and that on Saturday morning he will debut with the Barça shirt playing the summer classic against Real Madrid. “We’re going to send a message to the market as soon as we start investing,” Laporta said a few days ago. The entity wants Lewandowski to be the new Messi and now estimates that with the sale of shirts alone he will turn over 20 million euros. In addition to the commercial claim and ticket sales. Time will tell if they were dairy accounts or a round business.
