Leo Messi leaves PSG amid boos and indifference

A little anger, a little resentment and a lot of indifference. These are the feelings that could mutually fuel Leo Messi’s farewell evening at PSG on Saturday. Last of the championship, an evening of celebration, but only for the eleventh French champion title. And certainly not to give a hug to the Argentine world champion, booed by the Parco dei Principi, considered responsible for the flop in the Champions League, which was the only thing that mattered to him even in Doha. So the time has come for a divorce, even if there has never been a real marriage.

Maneuver

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At the very least, as l’Equipe ironically wrote this morning, it was adultery, but against Barcelona who dream of bringing him back to Catalonia. However, the Blaugrana accounts are in the deep red and cannot support the signing of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner. Also for this reason the hypothesis of a loan would have emerged, not from PSG where he arrives at the end of his contract, but from Inter Miami. In fact, David Beckham’s team has been working for months to convince the champion to move to the US championship. A temptation for Leo who would also become a testimonial for the next World Cup and who has been promised a franchise at the end of his career. However, Messi would give priority to a return to Barcelona: hence the idea of ​​an agreement between the two sides of the Atlantic that allows both perspectives to materialize. But from Spain there are increasingly insistent rumors of an agreement now concluded with Al Hilal which, according to l’Equipe, would guarantee the player 1.4 billion euros over two years.

feeling

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In Paris, Messi earns 40 million euros a season, with bonuses. Too many in the eyes of the ultras who consider him a mercenary, a symbol of the club’s overly commercial policies and repeated flops in the Champions League. The two eliminations in the round of 16 with him in the team eliminated the feeling with the fans who booed him for an entire time in the last home match, with every touch of the ball. Leo responded from the field, scoring the goal that earned him his eleventh title, but in Strasbourg. A record in France. But a record also for the Argentine now the most prolific striker in the five main European championships, with 496 goals: one more than Ronaldo. This season, Messi played 40 games for PSG, for 21 goals and 20 assists. Yet that’s not enough. And so on Saturday, on the occasion of the last round with Clermont, he is likely to be ignored by the curve, as he has ignored it up to now, only rarely giving a few greetings in these two Parisian years.

Brackets

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To mutual indifference, there is also the anger that emerges from the Messi clan at how PSG wanted to punish him, after he had missed a training session to go to Riyadh, for reasons of personal sponsors. The two-week sting, reduced to one after the player’s apology, was perceived as a willingness to make an example of him, when the club overlooked many other cases of indiscipline during the season, including from the other stars in the locker room. In short, Messi considers his parenthesis at PSG definitively closed, a club that he has discovered to be managed in a much more approximate way than the appearances of the great in Europe. There are 90 minutes left to say goodbye which will certainly not be worthy of the celebrations upon his arrival, when he was welcomed like a king. In France, however, historically kings always risk the guillotine.