Barcelona, one of football’s most storied clubs, continues to grapple with a financial crisis that threatens its legacy. In a stunning revelation, former Barcelona director Emili Rousaud has pointed the finger at the “embarrassing” behavior of club legends Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba, claiming their inflated salaries, driven by their ties to Lionel Messi, played a pivotal role in the club’s economic downfall. In his newly released biography, The Faith of the Entrepreneur, Rousaud pulls no punches, exposing how the trio’s extravagant wages, coupled with their reluctance to accept pay cuts, pushed the La Liga giants to the brink.
Piqué, Busquets, and Alba, who collectively made 1,719 appearances for Barcelona during a golden era of trophies, were among the highest-paid players at the club by the time the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The global crisis obliterated Barcelona’s matchday revenue—a critical lifeline for the club—exposing the fragility of their financial model. While Lionel Messi’s astronomical salary was deemed justifiable by Rousaud due to his unparalleled talent, he argues that the wages of his close allies were far less defensible.
“Barça’s problem was that they had the best player in the world [Messi], and he was the only one who generated the salary he earned,” Rousaud writes. “But there was pressure from Leo’s players’ entourage—Jordi Alba, Piqué, Busquets—all of them had to have their salaries raised, putting pressure on the president. This met Leo’s needs, and that led to absurd inflation.”
Rousaud doesn’t question the trio’s contributions to Barcelona’s success. Piqué, a stalwart defender, Busquets, a midfield metronome, and Alba, a dynamic left-back, were integral to the club’s dominance. However, he argues their salaries were disproportionate to their on-field value. “It’s not that Piqué wasn’t a good defender,” Rousaud explains, “but he wasn’t the best defender in the world, and he was the highest paid.” This imbalance, he claims, shattered the club’s pay equity, creating a financial house of cards that collapsed when the pandemic slashed revenues.
Perhaps most damning is Rousaud’s claim that Messi’s inner circle showed little willingness to ease the club’s burden during its darkest hour. “The players didn’t want to take a pay cut,” he writes. “That made me a little embarrassed as a fan, not as a director. They didn’t spare a single euro.” This refusal, according to Rousaud, exacerbated Barcelona’s financial woes, leaving the club unable to sustain its wage bill.
The consequences were catastrophic. In the summer of 2021, Barcelona’s dire financial straits forced them to part ways with Lionel Messi, their greatest-ever player, as they couldn’t afford to offer him a new contract. The departure of the Argentine icon was a gut punch to fans and a symbol of the club’s mismanagement. Later that year, Piqué, Busquets, and Alba reportedly accepted wage reductions to facilitate the signing of Sergio Agüero. “It’s what had to be done,” Piqué said at the time, framing the decision as a noble sacrifice. But for Rousaud, these measures were too little, too late.
Barcelona’s financial struggles persist to this day. Last season, the club required intervention from the Spanish government to register new signing Dani Olmo for the second half of the 2024–25 campaign. Meanwhile, transfer target Nico Williams reportedly rejected a move to Barcelona this summer, wary of facing similar registration issues. These incidents underscore the enduring impact of the club’s economic mismanagement, which Rousaud attributes in part to the unchecked influence of Messi’s entourage.
As Barcelona fights to restore its former glory, Rousaud’s revelations cast a harsh light on the internal dynamics that brought the club to its knees. The legacy of Piqué, Busquets, and Alba—once celebrated as heroes of the Camp Nou—now carries a shadow of controversy, raising questions about loyalty, responsibility, and the true cost of greatness.