It’s go once more ! Again eliminated in the knockout stages of the Champions League, PSG is in full swing. No one is spared: coach, players, role model, management… everyone has to question themselves.
Inevitably, the future of the club is at stake. While Paris revolves around Kylian Mbappe and that his contract will end next year, the time for reconstruction has ( once more) come. With a central question: will Leo Messi still be part of the project? At the end of the year, the lease of the future Ballon d’Or will end. But speculation has already been going well for several weeks and negotiations are already advanced between all the parties concerned. While everything seemed clear, this double confrontation once morest Bayern might call everything into question.
“Paris without geniuses”, “Mbappé knows where to go”: the European press falls on PSG following their new premature elimination from the Champions League
Especially since not everyone dreams of an extension. Starting with Jérôme Rothen. Exasperated by Messi once morest the Germans, the consultant wants change, and quickly! “Messi, we don’t want it”, he started for RMC. “He does not want to invest in this club! I saw his statement where he said ‘I’m well ‘acclimatized’ but what are you acclimatized to, my dear? Because you scored 18 goals or 16 assists this year once morest Angers and Clermont? But in the matches that matter, he disappears completely!”
According to the former international, Leo Messi forgets a bit quickly that PSG was one of the only clubs to reach out to him with his exorbitant salary. “Where it’s a joke is that we saw his matches at the World Cup, I saw his movements, how he invested himself. I don’t mind it being the jersey of the selection, a special thing. But, respect the club of the capital a little, which allows you to keep a standing and a salary. Only PSG might give him that. Obviously, PSG fell both feet in it because they thought Messi was going to win us. But he doesn’t win us anything.”
PSG, the failure of a model and a model of failure
For him, an extension would be a big mistake. “Of course he has a good foot and a good eye and he will still have them at 50. But he is unfit for high level with this state of mind. (…) If tomorrow, I learn that “He extends, I’m not going to the Parc des Princes anymore. It’s a real problem for PSG because it blocks recruiting. Quite simply because the payroll is huge because of these players.”
“His extension must be questioned”
It’s not just Jérôme Rothen who hits the Albiceleste star. The Eurosport website even speaks of a “casting error”. We are a long way from the “transfer of the decade”, mentioned when the Pulga arrived in Paris. “After a year and a half, the conclusion is clear: Paris made a mistake in recruiting him since not only did Messi not make the team progress, but his presence weakened the Parisian game plan”explains the media, visibly upset. “Apart from the months leading up to the World Cup, the world champion has never been worthy of what PSG legitimately expected of him. His extension, which will only take place if both parties agree, must be called into question, especially at 41 million euros per year.”
For the newspaper L’Equipe, Bixente Lizarazu evokes “a rock star crew”. “The club was built with the idea of acquiring worldwide notoriety and it’s true that today, thanks to Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, when we think of ‘big clubs’, we put the PSG in it, even if its record has nothing to do with that of other big clubs. But the downside, precisely, is that today we have three stars and the others…”
“The Big Decision”
In Catalonia, we revel in this situation. Mundo Deportivo were quick to put Leo Messi in the front page this Friday. Title of the day: “The big decision”. According to the newspaper, everything is still frozen for the future of the Argentinian even if his priority was to stay in France despite the known snub in C1. In addition, the newspaper lists other possibilities: a departure for Inter Mimi (United States), a return to Newell’s or a hypothetical signing in Saudi Arabia (where he will go in March as tourism ambassador) would be studied. Without forgetting a return to Barça, a hypothetical option but which the Catalan newspaper had to put in its pages.
Still, at present, Messi should extend well on the side of the French capital. While the club will find it very difficult to sell Neymar who is injured until the end of the season and who has a badly weakened ankle. Around these two stars in decline, Bondy’s rocket will still have to work miracles. Do we take the same ones and start once more next year?
