Bye Bye Messi

The End of an Era

Source: white whale mktg

15 years, x amount of games, x amount of goals, x amount of assists, and x amount of trophies. BUT NO MORE.

That’s right. We all know the news that Lionel Messi, the disputed GOAT of soccer (it’s football but we’ll say soccer) is leaving his long-term club Barcelona.

Most people are worried about what does this mean for Barca? Will they still be a European powerhouse without their number 10? Well, we like to ask ourselves the bigger picture questions.

In 15 years, Messi shirts alone have accounted for over 10 million shirt sales. Based on average shirt pricing we could be looking at close to $1 BILLION CAD. He’s been just under 50% of shirt sales for Barcelona over the past 15 years, even when players like Iniesta, Xavi, Henry, Eto’o, and Neymar have been at the club. Barcelona will most definitely struggle from a business point of view and will not have the same marketing strength as they have had over the past 15 years. No Messi = no money.

Fans won’t want to watch Barcelona now. And more fans will keep their loyalty to Leo over the club, generating millions of new fans for whichever club he goes to next.

It will be interesting to see how Barca recover from Messi’s departure, but it will be even more interesting to see where he goes next. The potential for whichever club he joins is ridiculous. We saw Cristiano Ronaldo’s impact on Juventus when he joined, so I think we’re definitely going to see it again.

My only question is can he do it on a cold night in Stoke? Or will he join his buddies in Paris? I wouldn’t mind seeing Messi and Neymar in Paris playing in an Air Jordan kit…

Published: August 6th, 2021 - Issue 3 of The Sport Marketeer