PSG ‘s economy took a leap in quality when the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) group bought 70% of the club in 2011 and pledged to financially support the club’s reconstruction. The following season, QIA acquired the remaining 30% from Colony Capital and became the full owner of the Parisian team.
This allowed PSG to start buying high-quality players, regardless of their market value. The club went from spending 9 million euros on signings in the 2010-2011 season to 107.10 million euros in the 2011-2012 season. So far, the 2018-2019 season was where PSG spent the most money on transfers. The Parisian team spent 262 million euros.
PSG have great deals with brands due to the high quality of the players on their roster, like Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, which generate large revenues. In turn, that amount of revenue has increased since PSG signed Lionel Messi. The Argentinian has made the French team richer.
Lionel Messi makesPSG earn €700M
With Messi’s departure to PSG, Barcelonaare estimated to have lost millions of euros in commercial revenue, ticket sales, shirt sales, and merchandising. Everything that Messi generated for Los Cules now benefits PSG. According to president Nasser al Khelaifi, PSG had never generated so much revenue in one season, with the 35-year-old Argentine in its squad, the club had revenues of €700,000,000.
Brands followed Messi and led PSG to ten new sponsorship deals. Indeed, it is estimated that revenues from this concept have grown by 13%, and they closed contracts with brands such as Dior, Gorillas, Crypto.com, Autohero, GOAT, Smart Good Things, Infinity Sports Water, Geekvape, PlayBetR, Volt, and Big Cola.
Lionel Messi poses with his jersey next to President Nasser Al Khelaifi / Sebastien Muylaert/Getty Images
The value of PSG’s cryptocurrencies also rose when it became known that the Argentine would join the French team. PSG earned 300 million euros through that channel. Another area where PSG havegrown exponentially with Messi’s arrival was in jersey sales . More than one million shirts were sold for the first time, 60% of those sales were of the former Barcelona player’s jersey.
Messi also generated an impact on the club’s social networks. PSG gained 15 million followers across all their platforms and surpassed the 150 million mark for the first time. “We earned an average of 1.4 million per week and were the first club to reach 10 and 20 million followers on TikTok”, Marc Armstrong, director of sponsors at PSG, said.
The Argentine’s arrival at PSG also meant that the Parc des Princes was packed match after match. According to the data managed by the club, many fans wereleft without the possibility of entering the stadium. PSG’s stadium has a capacity of 47,929.
Perhaps from a soccer standpoint, it was not Messi’s best season. He played 34 games, scored 11 goals, and provided 15 assists. But Messi continues to show how important he is to a team and why the club that owns him benefits so much from him.
