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Bitcoin Businesses The Almighty Buck

Soccer Superstar Messi is Being Partly Paid in Crypto by PSG (cnbc.com) 46

Lionel Messi's financial package at French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain includes crypto tokens. From a report: Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG this week, with an option for a third, that will net him an annual salary of $41 million plus bonuses, and a reported $30 million signing-on fee. PSG said Thursday that Messi's "welcome package" includes the cryptocurrency "$PSG Fan Tokens." The development has triggered a rally in the crypto tokens that PSG first issued to its fans over a year ago.

The $PSG token, created in Jan. 2020 with crypto platform Socios.com, was designed to help PSG build a new fan community. PSG claimed the move to pay the 34-year-old Argentine in crypto positions it as one of the "most innovative and avant-garde brands in sport globally." Cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens are incredibly volatile assets and their value can surge or tank overnight. Critics say that many of these crypto assets are useless in the real world and that regulators will clamp down on them in the coming years.

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Soccer Superstar Messi is Being Partly Paid in Crypto by PSG

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  • by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @10:14AM (#61684053)
    I would be very surprised that he doesn't have a guaranteed minimum buyout for these tokens by PSG. He's going to get his money either way, the suckers who buy into these things? Not so much.
    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by sareda1413 ( 8416401 )
      I'm sure he is getting paid in real currency. This is promotion for a coin. They are hoping the fans buy the coins because Messi, and Messi probably gets a cut. Pretty smart way to defray the costs of obtaining Messi assuming that the coins increase in value.
      • Messi = Carlos "I looo OOO oove BitConnect" Matos v2.0
      • I'm sure he is getting paid in real currency. This is promotion for a coin. They are hoping the fans buy the coins because Messi, and Messi probably gets a cut. Pretty smart way to defray the costs of obtaining Messi assuming that the coins increase in value.

        Notably they said it was "a large number of ‘$PSG Fan Tokens’" but they didn't actually say what that number was.

        As part of the "welcome package" it's most definitely a promotional thing and has nothing to do with his salary or his bonus, he potentially didn't even know the club was considering it when he signed.

      • Hmm.

        I read the synopsis and my first thought was...WHO?

        Should I know who this guy is?

        Next I thought...$70M for soccer?

        • <quote>Next I thought...$70M for soccer?</quote>
          Yeah, only $70M for Messi is a bit low.
        • by Cederic ( 9623 )

          Well, if you take Michael Jordan and gene splice him with Babe Ruth and Tom Brady to create the absolute best ice hockey player to ever exist he still wouldn't be as good as Messi is at football.

          You may not know who he is but billions of people around the world do. He's literally an icon.

    • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      Very handy for the football club, they can create money out of thin air and call it a wage. Every corporation under the sun is going to want to do this if they can.

      • What? You didn't see the cryptomining unit in the basement? Better hope it doesn't fail otherwise no one's getting paid this week.

      • Yeah, no. My contract says I'm getting actual money, or it's you asking me to work for free. Guess my response if asked to work for free. Hint: It's in the form of one certain big finger. ;)

        • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

          And what if you worked for EA and they offered you 'EA bux' instead that could be exchanged for 150% of your wages?

          Valve can control the price of loot box keys by selling them and by controlling the supply of loot boxes, I expect EA could do similar.

          How long until we see SteamCoins?

    • Or it's considered like stock options for a startup: a perk added to the contract which isn't really part of their compensation, but which could be worth a lot later, and offers an incentive to the company's success. In this case, PGS wants their coin to become valuable, and giving some to Messi a) works as a PR stunt to drive interest, and b) encourages Messi himself to start shilling the coin. It seems to have worked, at least a little bit, given this non-story is on Slashdot.

    • Maybe, maybe not. The entire football federation is in a crisis. Messi is playing for PSG now because after new rules, even after offering a 50% pay cut to Barcelona, PSG is the only club left who can afford to pay for him.

      I wouldn't be surprised if a portion of this was magic funny money with no contractually agreed buyout price.

  • ...is surely an insult. Sounds very.... Messy... *boom tish*
  • He's really into TaxDoge coins

  • by nagora ( 177841 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @10:50AM (#61684189)

    When you get paid several lifetimes' worth of money for kicking a ball around a field, there's no risk in taking some of it in crypto. He's never going to spend it all anyway.

    • When you get paid several lifetimes' worth of money for kicking a ball around a field, there's no risk in taking some of it in crypto. He's never going to spend it all anyway.

      All the more reason I laugh at Messi shedding tears over this. If he really loved his sport and wanted to play that badly, all parties involved could have easily negotiated a much lower financial burden on the club and still make everyone happy.

      But instead, we have to watch the fake drama over a multi-millionaire crying over fucking pocket change.

      • All the more reason I laugh at Messi shedding tears over this. If he really loved his sport and wanted to play that badly, all parties involved could have easily negotiated a much lower financial burden on the club and still make everyone happy.

        You mean the over 50% pay cut he offered to stay on with Barcelona? One which was negotiated and accepted by both parties but rejected by the football governing body due to new rules which effectively have declared Barcelona to be in too poor of a financial state to be allowed several of their players? Same rules which specify how a player is valued?

        As usual you're just a clueless arsehat.

        • All the more reason I laugh at Messi shedding tears over this. If he really loved his sport and wanted to play that badly, all parties involved could have easily negotiated a much lower financial burden on the club and still make everyone happy.

          You mean the over 50% pay cut he offered to stay on with Barcelona? One which was negotiated and accepted by both parties but rejected by the football governing body due to new rules which effectively have declared Barcelona to be in too poor of a financial state to be allowed several of their players? Same rules which specify how a player is valued?

          As usual you're just a clueless arsehat.

          He can afford to play for free. The clueless one, is the rich millionaire crying crocodile tears and every "governing" body making lame excuses to basically destroy a teams capability to provide great entertainment for the fans who want it.

          Let me guess, other losing teams were crying "unfair" which lead to these new "fair" rules?

          50% of a fuckton, is still half a fuckton. Bottom line is if he really wanted to play, he can find a way to play. "Governing" bodies should be listening to the ones providing the

  • Messi "quien paga a Hacienda -mes sÃ- mes no" (who pays taxes -month yes- month no).

    Now, having the money directly anonymous he would pay no more taxes...

  • ... a Messi situation!
  • So he's partly NOT paid.

    Just great... From now on, I'll have to make sure than in any contracts, I specify that any payment can ONLY be made in actual money.

    • I'm sure his accountant is much cleverer than you or me.

      If he took a full salary he'd have to pay income tax.

      On crypto, which is a worthless asset, he only has to pay tax if he makes a capital gain. i.e. he becomes an instant billionaire in 5 years time only if the fake-coin appreciates in value and only then has to pay capital gains tax.

We warn the reader in advance that the proof presented here depends on a clever but highly unmotivated trick. -- Howard Anton, "Elementary Linear Algebra"

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