Just a year ago, even thou it seems longer, Lionel Messi signed for PSG after spending his career at Barcelona and caused an earthquake. The Argentinian gave a lot to the Catalan club, and vice versa but El Mundo came out with a series of articles about Messi and Barcelona and their contract history, after which it all went ‘south’ for the two. Some of his demands in 2020 were 10 million euros signing bonus, 10.000 euros release clause (was 700.000), a private box at the Camp Nou for him and Suarez, a salary increase in 2022 with a 3% interest rate to compensate the deferred salary. To this day, Messi never confirmed (or denied) such demands, but throughout history, many footballers had strange or excessive contract demands and we will take a look at some of them. Samuel Eto’o was the World’s Highest Paid Footballer from 2011-2013.He earned £350,000 per week at Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia.He was given a private jet to fly out to Moscow daily in accordance with a clause in his contract.It was 1,200 miles away from where he played. pic.twitter.com/j2XLMFEBOd— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) April 2, 2022 SAMUEL ETO’OThe famous African striker and the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation had a illustrious career and played for Real, Barcelona, Inter, Chelsea, Everton, and… Anzhi Makhachkala. Now near the bottom of Russian’s third league, the club from the Russian republic of Dagestan used to be very rich in 2011 and brought Eto’o from Inter Milan. The Cameroonian played there for two season and scored 25 goals in 53 appearances before club’s budget was cut severely in 2013 and all big stars left. But, during his time, he has many wished which needed to be fulfilled. The biggest one was his accommodation. Dagestan is certainly no Milan, but can be a cozy place, but not for Eto’o. He didn’t want to live there, and wanted a private jet to allow him to fly to Moscow and live there. That basically meant hiring and airplane just for him, so can fly every day for trainings, since the distance was around 2000 kilometers. It’s not easy to determine who is crazier here – Eto’o for having such a request, or Anzhi, who accepted and drove him every day for two years. Congratulations to Samuel Eto’o who’s just become a father of a 22-year-old woman!RONALDINHOA magic footballer whose displays inspired many, but his on the field geniality also brought some off the field antics. After achieving as much as he could in Europe, he returned to Brazil in 2011 from AC Milan, but wanted to assure that he has full freedom in his time off. So, he asked (and Flamengo agreed) to insert a clause in his contract that permitted him to party twice a week. The plan obviously worked, since he scored 19 goals for the club in 44 appearances, before switching to Altetico Mineiro the next season. Nightlife king: Ronaldinho inserted clubbing into his contract with FlamengoNEYMARIf we look at Eto’o and Ronaldinho’s requests, maybe Neymar doesn’t look so extravagant at all. But he was. When he signed as big (but young) star from Brazil to Barcelona, the 21-year old forward wanted to see his childhood buddies and didn’t want to miss to many things, so he asked the club to allow him to fly over his friend from Brazil every two months, and the Catalonians agreed, and of course, they paid for those flights. Neymar used the fact that Real Madrid also wanted him at the time, and got what he wanted. Injured Neymar was still partying in Sao PaoloMAURO ICARDIIf you look at Mauro Icardi’s career so far, you don’t see any major trophies in his CV, just a couple of French titles and cups, but that’s just normal when you play in PSG, or when you warm up the bench at PSG, to be more precise. Still, it doesn’t mean that Icardi doesn’t have a lot of demands when he is chosing a new club. After finally agreeing to move from Paris (just on a one-year season loan) and go to Istanbul to play for Galatasaray, Icardi had a series of demands. Well, he or maybe his soon to be ex-wife and manager Wanda Nara, we cannot know for certain. The demands were: a 24-hour driver on hand, a personal chef, house with private security, a hotel to stay in until December and schools for their children to attend during their stay in Turkey. The Turks agreed to do that for only one season in the club. Icardi’s special conditions for Galata: Personal chef, round-the-clock securityMOISE KEANThe Italian international (from time to time) started his youth career in Juventus, and when negotiations for his professional contract started, his father has a request. Being from Ivory Coast, Biorou Kean waned fleet of tractors for his farm back in Africa and he threatened the club that his son will run down his contract and leave as a free agent. Moise Kean eventually signed the contract but his father’s demands were not met simply because the club negotiated a different deal with the player himself that didn’t involve tractors.In 2002, German striker Giuseppe Reina signed for Arminia Bielefeld with a contract that stipulated the club had to build him a house for every year of his contract.The striker failed to specify the size of the property and received a house made of Lego for three years. pic.twitter.com/FmZIeEa4L4— Football Snaps (@FootbaIISnaps) December 6, 2018 GIUSEPPE REINAMaybe an odd choice for this article, simply because this average German striker is not famous at all, but his contract demand and club’s willingness to trick him are worthy of reading. Giuseppe Reina wanted for Arminia Bielefeld to buy him a new house every season he played for them, and the club agreed very quickly. The reason was simple – he never wanted to specify the type or size of the house, so they just bought him a house made of Lego each year! He still stayed with them for 3 years, before his signed for Borussia Dortmund in 1999. ##NAJAVA_MECA_6677118##
