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Soccer

Report: Messi taking 'significant' salary cut to stay at Barca for 5 more years

Lionel Messi accepted a significant reduction in salary to stay at Barcelona for the next five years, sources told ESPN’s Sam Marsden and Moises Llorens.

Messi reportedly reached an agreement with Barcelona on Wednesday over a longer deal than had been anticipated. It was reported in June that the 34-year-old had accepted a two-year extension, with multiple outlets touting a subsequent move to Major League Soccer.

But Messi instead committed to the Blaugrana until the age of 39, according to Marsden and Llorens. He also agreed to cut his salary by 50%, Sport’s Ivan San Antonio reports.

His previous deal reportedly paid up to €138 million per season.

La Liga president Javier Tebas threatened to block the club from registering Messi’s new contract if it failed to rein in its spending. Barcelona reported gross debt at a whopping €1.173 billion while carrying €671 million in wages during the 2020-21 season.

La Liga imposes individual salary caps based on a number of factors, including a club’s revenue and debt. Though Barcelona far exceeded their €382.7-million limit last season, La Liga chose not to take disciplinary action because of the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite Barcelona’s difficulties, they still managed to sign Dutch forward Memphis Depay and Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero on free transfers.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta also secured a €500-million line of credit in May to alleviate the pressure on the club’s books.

Messi nearly forced his way out of Barcelona last August after a humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals. His camp believed he could activate a clause allowing him to unilaterally terminate his contract and leave as a free agent, but then-club president Josep Maria Bartomeu insisted no such clause existed.

Messi declined to take the club to court and saw out the remainder of the campaign. The Argentine scored 38 goals across all competitions and helped Barcelona win the Copa del Rey, their first title in two years.

NFL

Report: Chiefs' Clark faces felony weapon charge

Los Angeles prosecutors on Friday charged Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark with one felony weapons violation stemming from his arrest on March 13 by the California Highway Patrol, according to a report in The Kansas City Star.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told The Star on Friday that it had charged the 28-year-old Clark with one felony count of possession of an assault weapon. Clark was arrested in March, along with another man, when officers said they found two loaded firearms in their vehicle after a traffic stop, the paper reported, citing California Highway Patrol records.

Clark was also arrested last month in Los Angeles in a separate incident in which police officers allegedly saw a submachine gun in his car, but that remains under investigation. Clark’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said at the time of his arrest on suspicion of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle that the gun belonged to Clark’s bodyguard.

According to The Star, Clark is scheduled to be arraigned for the charge stemming from the March arrest on July 14.

If convicted, Clark could face up to three years in prison.

A native of Los Angeles, Clark played his first four NFL seasons with the Seattle Seahawks before being traded to Kansas City in 2019. He was part of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl-winning team in the 2019 season and has 49 sacks in 91 career games plus eight sacks in two postseasons with Kansas City. He has twice been named to the Pro Bowl since joining the Chiefs.

Clark was previously arrested in 2014 on suspicion of domestic violence over an incident at an Ohio hotel, leading to his removal from the University of Michigan team. He eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct.