{"id":12826,"date":"2023-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/would-you-turn-down-1-7b\/"},"modified":"2023-07-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:00:00","slug":"would-you-turn-down-1-7b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2023\/would-you-turn-down-1-7b\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you turn down $1.7B?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It sounds crazy, but I just read an article about a star athlete who turned down a $1.7B contract (salary of $400M\/year) for a deal that gave him a salary of close to $60M a year. WTH? The star is Lionel Messi, who will soon play soccer (sorry, football) at Inter Miami in the MLS. Admittedly, I\u2019m not a soccer fan, but when I heard about this deal, I realized I need to get more interested.<\/p>\n

I first heard about Messi\u2019s deal from a social media influencer,\u00a0kanekallawy<\/a>. Afterward, I had to dive in to understand why someone would turn down such a lucrative offer. I wasn\u2019t disappointed.<\/p>\n

To call Lionel Messi a soccer star would be an understatement. He\u2019s a 2022 World Cup champion and seven-time FIFA Ballon d\u2019Or winner who\u2019s played for Barcelona for almost two decades and, more recently, Paris Saint-Germain. He also plays internationally with Argentina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As his contract with Paris Saint-Germain wound down, he contemplated his options: One path led back to Barcelona, while another had him playing in Saudi Arabia. In a\u00a0joint interview with Mundo Deportivo and Sport<\/a>, he stated, \u201cI wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight, and think more of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem was, he had a reported offer from Saudi Arabia to make $400M a year in a contract worth $1.7B. How do you walk away from that? Who could even match it?<\/p>\n

To put that amount into perspective, the highest-paid MLS player was Chicago Fire\u2019s Xherdan Shaqiri, with an annual guaranteed salary of $8.2M. Let\u2019s compare that to other sports: In the MLB, the Los Angeles Angels\u2019 Shohei Ohtani makes $70M a year. In the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens\u2019 Lamar Jackson makes $52M a year, as does Stephen Curry of the NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors. And in the NHL, Connor McDavid makes $12.5M a year. So, $400M is pretty good.<\/p>\n

It was clear that Messi wanted out of Europe, but there\u2019s no way Inter Miami could come close to the Saudis\u2019 offer, so it was time to get creative. Fortunately for Inter Miami, David Beckham is president and co-owner. Beckham was part of a creative deal when he joined the Los Angeles Galaxy. In fact, it was so creative, MLS made a rule called The Beckham Rule, by which teams can acquire players outside of the salary cap. That opened the door for Beckham to negotiate an option to buy an MLS expansion team. The team he bought was Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

So, the stage was set \u2014 a motivated superstar wanting a change, a president\/co-owner who knew how to get creative, and a few companies (Apple, Adidas, MLS) that wanted to capitalize on bringing Messi to the league. This is how you walk away from $1.7B.<\/p>\n

As for the deal itself, it\u2019s reported to look something like this:<\/p>\n

\u00a0– Nearly $60M\/year in salary<\/p>\n

\u00a0– A share of Apple\u2019s MLS League Pass streaming revenue (Apple paid $2.5B to MLS for the league\u2019s streaming rights)<\/p>\n

\u00a0– A profit share with Adidas of all MLS apparel they sell (not just Messi\u2019s stuff, but\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0MLS apparel)<\/p>\n

\u00a0– The option to buy an ownership stake in an MLS team after he\u2019s done playing (sound familiar?)<\/p>\n

Many experts believe that the Saudi deal would likely have paled in comparison to Messi\u2019s final contract.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m often asked, \u201cHow do you measure a good deal?\u201d Any deal that everyone is happy with is a good deal. In this case, Messi got his payday, MLS and Inter Miami got the sport\u2019s biggest star, and Apple and Adidas increased MLS\u2019s exposure, which will lead to greater revenues. It seems like a win-win-win-win-win scenario.<\/p>\n

The keys to this deal:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Knowing the underlying motivators of all parties involved.<\/li>\n
  2. Creativity and thinking beyond standard variables.<\/li>\n
  3. Patience \u2014 this deal took nearly three years to pull together.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Congrats, Messi! You may have turned me into a soccer fan \u2014 or, at the very least, an admirer of your deal. Well done.We Can Help You Create a Deal Worthy of Admiration.<\/strong>Does your team know what a truly great deal looks like? Better yet, do they possess the knowledge, creativity, and patience required to craft one of their own? We can help! Draw on Scotwork\u2019s nearly 50 years of real-world negotiating experience to get better deals, save time, and create value that preserves and strengthens relationships. Partner with one of our advisers to ensure you have the optimum view of your deal.<\/p>\n

    Talk to one of our experts today:<\/p>\n

    P: 042979069<\/p>\n

    E: info@scotwork.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It sounds crazy, but I just read an article about a star athlete who turned down a $1.7B contract (salary of $400M\/year) for a deal that gave him a salary of close to $60M a year. WTH? The star is Lionel Messi, who will soon play soccer (sorry, football) at Inter Miami in the MLS….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":12827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_legacy_url":"blog-nz\/2023\/would-you-turn-down-1-7b\/","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWould you turn down $1.7B? | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2023\/would-you-turn-down-1-7b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Would you turn down $1.7B? 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