Onze: Lionel Messi's disappointment with ex-teammate Gerard Pique

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was not present at the dinner between Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba this week and the journalist Lluis Canut has said on Onze on TV3 that Messi is disappointed with the defender for renewing his contract outside of the collective negotiations.

Pique, one of the players with the most weight in the team and the dressing room, played both sides, defending his teammates in public, but negotiating a new contract with Josep Maria Bartomeu for his own benefit at the same time.

"The last contract renewal signed by Pique did a lot of damage to Messi and he felt disappointed," Canut explained.

He added: "In part, he also felt deceived by Pique, because [he then didn't further reduce his contract] until Messi left the club and Messi felt he should have done that earlier to try and avoid his exit."

Messi and Pique had a good relationship having come through the youth system together but tension has surfaced recently.

The economic crisis and the impact of Covid-19 hit the club hard and the board had to work on reducing salaries to keep the club afloat.

Just a few weeks ago, Canut also revealed Pique's salary pre-reduction on the same show, prompting Pique to take to social media and publish a screenshot of his payslip to contradict Canut's information.

Canut also revealed the wages earned by Philippe Coutinho (now on loan at Aston Villa), Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé, Busquets and Jordi Alba. Barça also denied Canut's information.