Al-Hilal Increase Already Huge Lionel Messi Offer: Reports

Al-Hilal have increased their already huge offer to Lionel Messi according to FC Barcelona transfer market expert Gerard Romero.

A Saudi delegation traveled to meet Messi on Monday after he played his last game for Paris Saint-Germain at the weekend.

Messi becomes a free agent on June 30 and, according to GOAL, shocked the Saudis when requesting that his potential move to Al-Hilal is delayed until 2024.

GOAL reported how the Saudis informed the Messis that their offer of €500 million ($534 million) a season won’t be the same next year.

According to Romero, however, Al-Hilal increased the value of the proposal which is a development that ties in with what Toni Juanmarti reported last week.

Juanmarti tweeted that there was a belief in Saudi Arabia that the Pro League team might have to improve their package to “achieve the definitive yes”.

Footmercato reported the offer as being €1.2 billion for two seasons and already accepted by the Messi camp on Sunday. Early last month, El Chiringuito reported it as €350 million per term and already taken by Messi who would be joined in the Middle East by former Barca teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

Any of these offers, if true and accepted, would put Messi in line to easily top the next edition of Forbes’ list of the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes.

Acting as the agent of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, Jorge Messi has denied that his son has an agreement in place with anyone.

The patriarch of the Argentine family meeting with Barca president Joan Laporta at his home, and telling Romero’s Jijantes FC channel his son “would love” to come back to Camp Nou at the turn of the week, was taken as a positive sign that Messi will don Blaugrana once more.

This was because these developments occurred after Relevo reported that Barca had received the green light from La Liga for their viability plan, which sets out how they will sign new players such as Messi amid their financial difficulties.

On Tuesday, though, Romero now sees Messi’s return as “very, very difficult”.

Shortly after Romero’s latest reports were released, Fabrizio Romano tweeted how sources close to Al-Hilal denied any knowledge of an improved offer and insisted that the proposal is still the same as the €1 billion ($1.1 billion), two-year package revealed in April.