La Liga president Javier Tebas has insisted that Lionel Messi would need to take a pay cut to join Barcelona, who are required to sell players before they can attempt to re-sign the Argentine.
The 35-year-old was forced to end his legendary 17-year senior career at Camp Nou in the summer of 2021 after Barcelona were unable to offer the forward a new contract amid their financial troubles.
Messi has since spent the last two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain, scoring 31 goals and providing 34 assists in 71 games across all competitions, as well as winning one Ligue 1 title and one French Super Cup.
PSG are understood to have the option to extend Messi's contract by a further 12 months, but the French giants will allegedly opt against triggering the extension clause, meaning that the 2022 World Cup winner is set to leave the club for free this summer.
The news comes just a few days after the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner was handed a two-week suspension without pay by PSG for taking an unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this week for commercial reasons.
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Messi, who may have played his final game for PSG, has been heavily linked with a return to Barcelona for some time, although the reality of a proposed deal taking place remains to be seen due to the Catalan club's well-documented financial problems.
La Liga chief Tebas revealed earlier this year that Barca will be required to raise around £177m from player sales before that can consider targeting new signings this summer.
Speaking to reporters in March, Tebas said: "Barcelona doesn't have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window. Barcelona has been involved in questionable behaviour which has had an impact on La Liga and we are acting accordingly. We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players.
"We have strict economic controls. At the end of each window, we tell all the clubs in La Liga what they can spend. In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop from spending on wages and transfers from €650m to €450m (£532m to £399m) so it's a budget of minus €200m (£177m).
"They have to reduce their investment in players and we have encouraged them to sell players because, for every amount they raise in sales, they can spend 40% of that."
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Tebas has now warned Barca that they must also sell players in order to fund a move for Messi, who will need to take a significant pay cut from his reported €35m-a-year deal at PSG.
"If Barca signs Leo Messi, his salary will be less than what it is at Paris Saint-Germain," the La Liga chief told reporters as quoted by talkSPORT.
"His return is now conditional on selling players. I think that Barca will get a good amount from selling players this summer."
Messi is believed to be keen to return to Barcelona, where he scored 672 goals in 778 appearances and won a total of 35 trophies including 10 La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues.
However, should a move to Camp Nou fail to materialise, a potential big-money switch to Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Hilal has been mooted.
Oliver Thomas
