People don’t just see Barcelona as a football team for many, it means something bigger. For years, people have said "més que un club" more than a club and they meant it.
Barcelona represents Catalonia, identity, culture, politics, and pride. But in the last few years, it’s looked like just another big club in trouble. Behind all the big stadium lights, things have been falling apart.
The decline hasn’t just been about results. It’s been about bad decisions, Poor leadership, Debt and an inability to deal with the realities of modern football.
Now, former Barcelona director Emili Rousaud has spoken out. He’s pointed fingers at three club legends Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba saying their contracts and salaries played a major role in dragging the club into financial chaos.
Let’s be honest, these weren’t just any players. Piqué, Busquets, and Alba were at the heart of a golden era. Over 1,700 games between them.
They won Champions Leagues, La Liga titles, Club World Cups. But, according to Rousaud, behind that glory was a slow financial disaster that nobody wanted to face.
Rousaud's Claims: Riding Messi's Shadow
In his book, The Faith of the Entrepreneur, Rousaud doesn’t sugarcoat it. He says Messi earned every cent of his salary.
He was the face of the club, the magnet for sponsors, the reason tourists lined up at the Camp Nou. But the problem was that Messi’s close teammates wanted to be paid like him.
“Barça had the best player in the world,” Rousaud wrote. “But the others pressured the club to raise their salaries too. Jordi Alba, Piqué, Busquets… They weren’t generating that same value.”
He goes on to call the situation "absurd inflation". The kind of wage growth that simply didn’t match the performances anymore.
Fans who watched closely saw it coming. Piqué wasn’t the same defender after 2018. Busquets was being run past more often than he controlled the game.
Alba still bombed down the wing, but he didn’t have the same consistency. Yet their paychecks got bigger. Loyalty was rewarded, but at what cost?
And the issue wasn’t just about a few stars. Once big contracts became the norm, the club’s whole wage structure shifted. New signings expected the same treatment. Average players got paid like superstars. That’s when things really started to spiral.
The COVID Collapse
Then came the pandemic. For a club like Barcelona, matchday revenue is huge. Tourists visiting the stadium, merchandising, museum tickets, regular fans buying season passes it all vanished overnight.
“Every company needs a sense of pay equity,” Rousaud said. “And that was gone. Then COVID hit. No ticket sales. No income.”
Worse still, according to him, players didn’t want to help.
“They refused pay cuts,” he said. “As a fan, that embarrassed me.”
That hurts to hear. Especially when fans were losing jobs, people were struggling, and all anyone asked was a gesture. But some players didn’t give it.
Not all clubs acted the same. Some negotiated with players to delay payments. Others got creative with performance-based bonuses. But at Barcelona, those conversations became tense.
The board feared losing dressing room control and the players feared being singled out.
Messi’s Exit: The Final Blow
By 2021, the books were a mess. The club couldn’t register Messi under La Liga rules. Even though he agreed to lower his salary, the numbers still didn’t work.
Seeing Messi leave in tears wasn’t just painful. It was surreal. He has given everything to the club but in the end, they just couldn’t afford to keep him. That’s when it really hit home how bad things had happen.
Only then did Piqué, Alba, and Busquets agree to cut their wages.
“It had to be done,” Piqué said at the time. “We wanted to help.”
But for many fans, it was too late. The damage was done.
A Club Still Paying the Price
Even now, in 2025, Barcelona hasn’t fully recovered. They keep trying new ways to get quick money, what they call "economic levers" like selling parts of their future TV rights or digital assets. It’s basically borrowing from tomorrow to survive today.
Just last season, they struggled to register Dani Olmo because of the wage cap. It took lobbying with La Liga and some financial reshuffling to make it happen.
And Nico Williams? He reportedly said no to Barcelona this summer. He was worried he’d get stuck in registration limbo.
He’s 22, still developing, and what he needs most is regular minutes so you can see why he didn’t want to take that risk. Why risk that just to wear the Blaugrana?
And it’s not just Williams. Agents around Europe are now more cautious when negotiating with Barcelona.
There’s a fear that new signings might not be eligible to play right away. That kind of uncertainty can kill deals before they even start.
A Cultural Problem, Not Just Financial
This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about a mindset. A culture that stopped making tough calls. That valued comfort over competition. That paid legends like kings even when their performance said otherwise.
And the fans? Many of us let it happen. Because they were our legends. Because they brought us joy.
But football doesn’t forgive emotional decisions. Not forever. Sooner or later, reality bites.
There was a time when Barcelona led world football in terms of sporting philosophy, They had a clear identity.
La Masia brought through players like Xavi, Iniesta, and Puyol, no one’s forgetting that. But once that generation faded out, the club stopped looking ahead the same way. Instead of planning ahead, they started reacting to every crisis.
Signings didn’t fit the system, Contracts ballooned, and the team’s spine aged without replacement.
The Xavi and Flick Era: Rebuilding on Shaky Ground
Under Xavi, and now Hansi Flick, there’s been a shift. Young players like Gavi, Pedri, and Lamine Yamal have become the new face of the club. They bring energy and hope. But they also come with lower wages and more risk.
The club is doing what it can. Cutting big contracts. Promoting academy talent. Trying to stay competitive without breaking the bank.
It’s not just a squad rebuild. It’s a financial one too. Every transfer is measured. Every deal triple-checked. There’s no room for mistakes.
And fans are learning to be patient. Gone are the days of Galáctico-style signings. Now, it’s about sustainability. About being smart. And about trusting the youth.
Who’s Really to Blame?
Everyone played a part. Bartomeu, the former president, signed off on the huge contracts. The players demanded more. The board gave in. And we, the fans, cheered from the stands while ignoring the cracks.
Maybe Rousaud is trying to shift the blame. Maybe he’s just being honest. Either way, the truth is that Barcelona got lost trying to hold on to the past.
The price? Losing Messi. Losing stability. And losing the fear factor that once made the Camp Nou a fortress.
One former club executive recently said in a Catalan radio interview: “We stopped being a football club and became a bank with footballers. Our job was paying debt.”
That’s how far things fell.
The Road Ahead
Barcelona still has the power to rise again. The brand is global. The fanbase is loyal. The youth pipeline is strong. But they must keep learning.
Shortcuts won’t work. Flashy signings without planning will backfire. What they need is long-term thinking.
Fans want to dream again. But this time, they want to dream responsibly.
WanderlustSport Verdict
Barcelona’s fall didn’t come overnight. It was years in the making. Too many emotional decisions. Too little accountability. Legends stayed too long. Leaders failed to lead. And when crisis came, no one knew how to fix it.
It’s a warning for every big club: sentiment doesn’t pay the bills.
The rebuild is happening, slowly. But until everyone at the club. players, board, fans accepts the hard truths, Barcelona won’t truly be back.
They can say "més que un club" all they want. But right now, they have to prove it.