Lionel Messi Owes Small Fortune to Spanish Government

Lionel Messi is set to redeem himself in the eye's of the Spanish tax authorities, according to a report from Marca.

The Argentine had been charged with tax evasion in 2013, but he was acquitted of criminal charges in the case by Spanish courts. He was made liable to pay the back taxes owed to the Spanish government.

Messi, and his team of accountants, have gone back a few years, and settled the original €4.1m debt, while negotiating a future payment plan, that in sum will equal about €25m up until 2018 when his current contract runs out. This sum will be payed in yearly installments, and prevent the superstar from running afoul of the law during the course of his new record-breaking contract that he signed this year with Barcelona.

The original charges were due to tax irregularities that stem from the licensing of his image rights. This revenue from the rights was put into off-shore tax havens, unbeknownst to Messi.

The fine that was imposed on Messi was €2.7m. However Messi need not fret, as he is currently endorses global brands such as: Adidas, Electronic Arts, Gillette, PepsiCo, and Turkish Airlines.

With Messi earning so much from extra-curricular activities alone, he can expect a few more visits from tax collectors who are trying to fill the coffers of a mostly bankrupt Spanish government.

Argentina see danger in their over-reliance on Lionel Messi

Argentina players Lionel Messi, Ángel di Maria and Ricardo Álvarez during a training session in Porto Alegre. Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters

Messidependencia has made it to the World Cup along with the 150,000 Argentinians who have started arriving in the city of Porto Alegre for Wednesday’s match with Nigeria. It is a word that periodically appeared in Catalonia and now it is back again here in Brazil, with Argentina’s manager, Alejandro Sabella, admitting that, yes, his side do have Messidependence.

Two wins secured by two Messi goals after two relatively poor performances have provoked mixed emotions among Argentina fans. Messi, who turned 27 on Tuesday, has now been embraced as never before. But there is concern at the way this team rely on him.

His superbly taken goals were the kind of moments they dreamt of; narrow wins against Bosnia and Iran were not. And Sabella agreed that there must be improvements. But he also admitted that relying on the four-times Ballon d’Or winner is inevitable.

“Whenever there is a player like Messi, there’s a dependence,” he conceded. “We are trying to improve but dependence always exists. We have to try to take the pressure off him between all of us because we are a team. But for a great player there is always pressure at a World Cup.”

Porto Alegre was packed with Argentinians on Tuesday night, with camper vans parked up all the way along the routes to the Estádio Beira-Rio. This is the host city nearest to the Argentina border and they have arrived in huge numbers, chanting Messi’s name. They want to see him play and, asked if he might be tempted to rest Messi with qualification already secured, Sabella said: “No. If he is OK he will play.”

It was not always this way but the Barcelona player has steadily won them over. The days when he did not perform for his country as he did for his club appear to be behind him. “Recently Leo has played very well with the Argentinian national team, just as he had elsewhere,” Sabella said. “He has been decisive in these two games and the fans idolise him. He has earned that and we will try to make sure it stays that way.”

“We have to improve as a group, starting with me,” Sabella continued. “We have to have greater mobility to find space. I am not worried but I am looking for ways of improving collectively. Against Iran we did not lose our balance in the first half [but] the need to win a game to qualify sometimes means you become unbalanced. We will almost certainly play a 4-3-3 but I do not want to give the line-up yet as I want to wait and see how the players recover.”

Messi did not score at the last World Cup, at least in part because of Vincent Enyeama, who denied him with a couple of superb saves when they met in the group four years ago. The Nigeria goalkeeper will stand before him again on Wednesday night.

Here Enyeama insisted: “He is one of the best players on the planet but I am never afraid of football. And this is Nigeria versus Argentina, not me versus Messi.”

Lionel Messi's girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo and son Thiago wear replica shirts and join Argentina WAGs at 1-0 win over Iran .

Argentina's support at this summer's World Cup has been impossible to miss due to their vocal efforts but some of the support - namely the players' wives and girlfriends - have been turning heads for other reasons.

The Argentines were cheered on in their Group F clash against Iran in Belo Horizonte by a host of stunning players partners, and it seemed to do the trick with Lionel Messi grabbing a late winner to secure progress to the knockout stages.

And Messi's girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo was in the stands at the Estadio Mineirao along with their 19-month-old son Thiago

The 26-year-old sported an Argentina replica shirt complete with Messi's shirt number, 10, as she entered the ground, while Thiago was also kitted out to support his Dad with 'Papi, 10' on the back of his shirt.

But while Messi was the star of the show on the pitch, his supporting cast had their own supporters in tow as they left Belo Horizonte after the scrappy 1-0 win against the unfancied Iranians.

Martin Demichelis' wife Evangelina Anderson had been cheering on the now ponytail-less Manchester City centre back and his club teammate, Sergio Aguero, also had his significant other Karina Tejeda supporting him.

Sergio Ramos' wife Eliana Guercio was at the Tancredo Neves International Airport too with her two children.

The wives, girlfriends and family members were boarding a special charter flight back to Argentina after 1-0 win.

Argentina's Lionel Messi Nets 40th International Goal

 

Superstar Lionel Messi saved Argentina from a disappointing draw with Iran by scoring a goal one minute into stoppage time to clinch a 1-0 victory at the World Cup on Saturday. The goal made Messi only the second Argentinian to reach 40 international goals, joining Gabriel Batistuta, per ESPN FC.

Messi has now scored in both of Argentina's games in Brazil, having also found the back of the net in La Albiceleste's opening 2-1 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina last Sunday.

The back-to-back goals are a significant turnaround for Messi, who actually scored in his first-ever World Cup game back in 2006 in Germany against Serbia and Montenegro. However, he failed to find the back of the net in both of Argentina's next two games during the '06 Cup, or in any of their five games in South Africa four years ago.

Coincidentally, two other star international players reached the 40-goal mark in Brazil, as England's Wayne Rooney and Uruguay's Luis Suarez both scored in their match Thursday, which Uruguay won 2-1.

With his team already through to the knockout stage, Messi will have at least two more chances this summer to get closer to Batistuta's Argentinian record of 56 international goals. First up is Thursday's final group game against a Nigerian side that is sitting at four points through two games
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World Cup 2014: 'Genius' Lionel Messi fires Argentina into the knock-out rounds with 91st-minute strike

Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella hails Barcelona forward after his side struggle to breakdown a well-drilled Iranian side

One of the great iconoclastic World Cup performances was about to reward Iran with a point when a familiar figure collected the ball on the edge of their penalty area in added time. Lionel Messi tapped it to his left and bent a shot that fired Argentina into the knock-out rounds. In all the variables, great players remain the single most important factor in determining outcomes.

“Of course we have a genius. He’s Argentinian. He’s in our team. Everyone would like to have one,” boasted Alejandro Sabella, the coach, who deferred in the Bosnia-Herzegovina game to his superstar’s wish to play 4-3-3 rather than 5-3-2.

This transformative strike against an Iran side who have now planted their flag in World Cup football sent joy pulsing through Argentina’s followers, who jigged and twirled flags in celebration of a great escape.

Messi had scored much the same goal against Bosnia, cutting across the box and picking a spot no less precisely than a darts player. His icy talent was finally too much for Iran, who had screened and double-teamed Argentina’s finest players into a dead-end.

Everyone understood the significance of the ball’s curve beyond Alireza Haghighi. They had seen it hundreds of times at Barcelona. You shut Messi down for 89 minutes. You tackle him 30 times. You think you have locked him up. But he just needs one squeak of a chance. The lethal vision is ever present. The boot will provide the execution. A pass from the right, a dart to the left, the teeing-up of the shot: game over.

World Cup 2014: Lionel Messi shows Argentina his value against Iran

Lionel Messi celebrates his superbly taken winning goal against Iran in Belo Horizonte. Photograph: Argenpress/Rex Features

Brazilians are rightly proud of Belo Horizonte, one of this continental-scale nation’s most sedate and fragrant urban sprawls. It seemed fitting that the agreeably low-key stadium should produce one of the more thrilling 1-0 World Cup group-stage wins, a vibrant, densely plotted victory for Argentina against Iran that seemed to raise more questions than it answered.

Argentina will be pleased to have qualified from group F at the earliest opportunity, and cheered by the spectacle of Lionel Messi’s superbly taken winning goal, his second in succession in this tournament. And yet they struggled at times, despite having Alejandro Sabella’s most glitzy attacking 4-3-3 formation on the pitch from the start. In fact this match was a fine example of how the fast-breaking style of football at this World Cup bypasses the accepted registers of statistics-based football analysis that flourished in the previous mini-age of the possession game, the received wisdom that x amount of possession, plus y goal attempts proves that z were the better team.

In Belo Horizonte Argentina had 67% possession and 19 goal attempts to Iran’s seven. But for all that they could quite easily have lost a match in which Iran had the best chances of the second half, executed their gameplan more effectively and might have had a penalty had the referee had super-slow-mo cyborg vision, thereby allowing him to dissect properly Pablo Zabaleta’s marginal challenge on Ashkan Dejagah.

Argentina will now play Nigeria in Porto Alegre needing only a draw to top the group, which would mean the Albiceleste go on to face (probably) Ecuador or Switzerland, thereby avoiding France. It is an important detail: Argentina have looked an unbalanced team good enough to see off the second tier at this World Cup; but a team that has enough attacking brio lurking in its ranks to beat the best at least some of the time.

If there were concerns arising from victory here they are historic ones. Argentina’s midfield of Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago and Ángel Di María looked to have too much to do, with Mascherano both directing the play and filling the gaps. The full-backs were not sure whether to stick or twist and were somehow simultaneously caught out going forward and staying back too much. And yet this is perhaps the way of this team, with its split formation – too often a kind of 4-0-6 – and its weight toward the attacking end of things.

If Argentina can squeeze past relatively friendly opponents in the last 16 they will be three more Messi winning goals from becoming world champions. And nobody who has paid serious attention to Rosario-by-Catalonia’s scuttling genius of a No10 would rule out a Messi winning goal against any team on any pitch in any competition.

As for Iran they gained plenty of hearts in Belo Horizonte. The combination of a large football-daffy population, the tactical hand of Carlos Queiroz and the mining of Iran’s footballing diaspora have produced a skilled and passionate team. Dejagah, who played for Germany Under-21s alongside Manuel Neuer, Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil and Mats Hummels, provides a high-speed cutting edge to a team that will feel hard done by to have only one point so far.

With Bosnia-Herzegovina already out of the World Cup, Iran have the qualities to reach the second round for the first time.

World Cup 2014: Lionel Messi stunner secures win for Argentina over Iran.

A stunning injury time strike from Lionel Messi spared Argentina’s blushes as they qualified for the last 16 of the World Cup with a hard fought 1-0 win over Iran in Belo Horizonte.

Argentina had been thankful to three fine second-half saves from goalkeeper Sergio Romero just to be level heading into stoppage time, while Iran had also had a strong penalty appeal waved away when Pablo Zabaleta appeared to foul Ashkan Dejagah inside the area.

However, despite having endured a quiet game by his standards, Messi produced a moment of magic when his side needed it most to register his second goal of the tournament.

Winner: Lionel Messi celebrates his goal.

‘‘Messi was marked very tightly, but he showed perseverance, patience, attitude and always looked for the goal. He never gave up.’’

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz also praised Messi’s match-defining contribution, but claimed his side had also been undone by Serbian referee Milorad Mazic’s decision not to award a penalty when his side were on top in the second half.

Close call: Argentina's goalkeeper Sergio Romero blocks the ball after a header from Iran's Reza Ghoochannejhad. Photo: AP

‘‘Messi was fantastic, but the referee wasn’t,’’ said the former Real Madrid coach.‘‘I don’t understand it, he had to have seen it was a penalty. He was five metres away, there is no way he couldn’t have seen it.

‘‘I have the right to say this and I only hope I am now not punished for telling the truth.’’

Sabella had resorted to the 4-3-3 system preferred by Messi with the four-time World Player of the Year joined by Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero in attack.

Click for more photosThe first opening fell to Higuain from a fine pass by Fernando Gago, but Iranian ’keeper Alireza Haghighi bravely smothered the ball at the Napoli striker’s feet.

Angel di Maria and Messi from a free kick then fired over from the edge of the area, but Argentina were having some joy from set-pieces and Marcos Rojo and Ezequiel Garay should have done better when they failed to hit the target from close range from fine deliveries by Messi.

Iran were also dangerous from set-pieces, though, as they could even have gone ahead before the break when Jalal Hosseini headed just over from a corner.

It was the Asian side who threatened again at the start of the second period as Reza Ghoochannejhad forced a fine low save from Romero with a flashing header at the near post before Dejagah’s appeals for a penalty were turned down when he tumbled in the area under pressure from Zabaleta.

Messi then had his first clear chance of the game as he raced onto Javier Mascherano’s pass but curled the ball just wide of the target.Romero was forced to come to his side’s rescue again moments later he got fingertips to a fine header from Dejagah to turn the ball behind and the Monaco stopper denied Reza once more as Iran threatened to nick all three points on the counter-attack two minutes from time.

Instead it was Argentina who snatched victory at the last as Messi created the half yard of space he needed on the edge of the area before leaving Haghighi with no chance as he curled the ball just inside the far corner on his favoured left foot.