Inter owner Jindong Zhang sees the signing of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi as the next step after bringing Antonio Conte in to manage the club according to a report in today’s print edition of Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Jindong Zhang, the father of Inter president Steven Zhang, has always aimed high and three years ago he wanted Antonio Conte appointed as club boss and he sees bringing Messi to the club as the next step.
Suning owned PPTV Sports projected the silhoutte of Messi onto Milan’s famous Duomo cathedral to promote Inter’s match with Napoli, which they won 2-0 last night and there has been no shortage of speculation in the media regarding Messi possibly moving to Inter.
The report goes on to explain that Messi has fallen out with current Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and no longer wants him at the helm of the club.
In addition to this, Messi has under a year left on his current contract and from January it will be possible to approach him on a pre-contract basis provided he does not sign a new deal by then.
The report from the Milan based news outlet goes on to highlight how much Messi would cost a club if they wanted to sign him.
Juventus paid Real Madrid €100 million to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi could perhaps cost twice as much in transfer fees. If Messi costs €200 million and is given a three year contract worth €50 million net a year, which equals €150 million net or €300 million gross, the total cost of the deal would be around €500 million gross.