Lionel Messi To Receive Part Fee In Crypto FAN Tokens At PSG

Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi has signed a new two-year contract with French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain or PSG, with part of his fee to be paid in the club’s $PSG cryptocurrency Fan Tokens. The club said the fan tokens were included in Messi’s “welcome package.”

The club noted that Messi, who left La Liga giant FC Barcelona, received a large number of ‘$PSG Fan Tokens’ in what is claimed to be the world’s first for such a high-profile signing. He reportedly received $30 million signing-on fee and will receive an annual salary of $41 million plus bonuses.

The fan tokens instantly ties Messi with millions of PSG fans around the world. Fan Tokens have also become a creative way for millions of global fans to engage with the clubs and have a say in club matters.

PSG became the first professional football club to launch fan tokens in January 2020 in partnership with blockchain-powered fan engagement platform Socios.com. The tradable fan tokens engaged global PSG fans and its digital fan base across social media platforms to have a say in club matters through the fan voting and rewards mobile App on Socios.com using the fan token.

Though PSG was the first Club to join the Socios.com platform, it was the second after Italian Soccer Club Juventus to launch the fan token and the first voting.

Socios.com is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform that leverages blockchain technology to provide the world’s leading sporting organizations with the tools to engage with their global fanbases. More than 40 major sporting organizations have joined Socios.com’s elite global network.

Some of the other teams on the platform include Spain’s La Liga soccer clubs Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona as well as European league clubs, Italy’s Juventus and AS Roma as well as UK’s West Ham United, Argentine Club Atlético Independiente and the latest being English Premier League club Arsenal F.C.

Socios.com is powered by Malta-based esports voting platform ChiliZ, which allows both esports and sports entities to tokenize their voting rights to their fan bases to crowd-manage sports and esports organizations.

The fan tokens helped the club engage with a new global audience and created a significant digital revenue stream for the club.

Fan Tokens for PSG, Juventus, AS Roma and Galatasaray have already been listed on world-leading crypto exchanges, including Binance. Fan Tokens have generated $150 million for clubs and partners in 2021 alone and look set to become a powerful new revenue stream for the sports industry.

PSG said the hype surrounding the latest signings in the club’s busy summer transfer window created a huge surge of interest in $PSG Fan Tokens, with trading volumes exceeding $1.2 billion in the days preceding the move.