Gerard Pique ‘accepts 50 per cent pay cut’ on his new Barcelona contract despite anger among the dressing room over more coronavirus cuts… and if he ‘fails to play 35 per cent of games next season, the club can SCRAP his deal’
- Barcelona are urgently trying to save money due to the coronavirus pandemic
- Gerard Pique recently signed heavily revised terms on his new Barca deal
- The terms run until 2024 but have clauses that could see him depart sooner
Gerard Pique’s new Barcelona contract saw him accept a 50 per cent pay cut and a clause that could allow the Nou Camp club to scrap the deal altogether next season.
That’s according to Spanish publication Sport, who say Pique needs to play 35 per cent of matches in the 2021-22 season or Barcelona chiefs can rescind the terms completely.
Pique, now 33, has been a Barcelona player since 2008 and has become a mainstay of a squad that has won three Champions League titles and eight LaLigas during his time in Spain.
Gerard Pique has reportedly penned a new Barca deal that saw him take a 50 per cent cut
If Pique doesn’t play 35 per cent of next season’s games, Barcelona can scrap his contract
But now, Barcelona are counting the cost of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and Pique is one of a few players to agree revised terms to their contract.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong and Clement Lenglet have also penned new terms and, according to Sport, have all seen their salaries shrunk by 30 per cent.
It is believed Barcelona’s unpopular club president Josep Bartomeu is trying to slash the club’s overall player wage bill by as much as 25 per cent to offset money lost due to the coronavirus outbreak.
A number of the club’s leading players, including Pique, signed a letter to the club’s board stating that they would refuse to negotiate a wage cut but the defender has now u-turned and signed a deal.
Marca reported earlier this week that members of the Barcelona dressing room have been left frustrated by Pique’s change of heart.
Back in March, Messi announced that Barcelona’s players had accepted cuts to their pay to ensure other works for the club could be payed in full.
His decision to take a pay cut has reportedly angered some of his Barcelona team-mates
Under-fire president Josep Maria Bartomeu is trying to get his players to take 25% pay cuts
‘If we didn’t speak until now, it’s because the priority was to to find solutions to help the club and to see who the most affected were during this situation,’ he said
‘For our party, the moment has arrived that, the cut will be 70 per cent of our wage during the state of alarm. We will also help out the club in order for the workers to be paid 100 per cent of their wages.’
But now Barcelona are in need of more savings after posting a loss of £88m this summer.
