Maria Laura Avignolo
08/08/2021 21:34
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/08/2021 21:34
After tears and goodbye to a love story in Barcelona, another is born in Paris
. The expected arrival of
Lionel Messi
to PSG is not yet closed. But the gestures of affection, admiration and camaraderie have already begun. The first was
Neymar's
: not only did he call the club's president, Qatari Nassser Al Khelaïfi, to tell him that Messi was “indispensable at PSG”, but he offered him his number 10 jersey. An egoless offering from a player who it cost 220 million euros for his dear friend.
The dressing room, with Leandro Paredes, Ángel Di María and Sergio Ramos at the helm, awaits him to continue the party on the court and in life
. The Galactics are your best friends.
Messi's plane became the most desired ghost of the afternoon.
The plane tracker, which watches planes in the sky and on the ground, was fully operational, but no jet was seen coming from Barcelona's El Prat airport to the very private Le Bourget, near Orly.
The impatience of his fans increased.
The police were seeking to evict them.
In front of each plane that arrived, the cry was heard: “Messí, Messí”
, “Leó, Leó”, as the French call it.
They were returning from the Côte d'Azur and Saint-Tropez, but on the 10th it never landed.
The first experience for him in France will be to get used to being renamed
, with an accent at the end of his name.
Leo remained in the Barcelona archive.
Here it will be Leó in the stands of PSG.
After his sad farewell, Messi will be greeted like a true star in Paris Photo: AFP
At the American Hospital in Neuilly sur Seine, in a special section that PSG uses to assess the health of the players
it transfers, they wait for him to do check-ups.
But
sometimes PSG takes them to Doha for
a couple of days, where they have sophisticated hospital facilities.
It was what they did with Kylian Mbappé when they hired him
.
Leo did not arrive on Sunday. They are waiting for you this Monday, when the health passport is fully operational in Paris for the first time.
Neither he nor his wife, Antonela, will be able to enter a hospital, a restaurant, a hotel, a shopping mall or get on a plane without a passport
. It will surely be the first document that the club will give you along with the contract. Today in France that passport is essential because it ensures freedom of movement.
There is no VIP status to alter it
. Those who want to see him at the Parc des Princes, probably on September 12 before Clermont, will have to get vaccinated. No place for anti-vaccines, numerous in France.
Messi's contract would be for two years and would amount to 40 million euros plus a premium. But
his arrival ranks a high-ranking club of nouveau riche billionaires that needs prestige
. The euros are left over, when Qatar, its owner, is the fourth largest gas producer in the world.
Messi, Neymar, Mbappé, Ramos and Di María are a line that polishes the brand and exports it to the world with a strength and quality that PSG did not have.
The largest football marketing operation begins, a few months before the World Cup in Qatar
, when the club's other great objective is to win the Champions League. Qatar Sport Investment changed the face of the club. Messi and his friends will put their soul and soccer passion, with complicity, to a millionaire project. It will be a joy to see them play and that is their main attraction.
Paris will host the Olympics after Tokyo.
Anne Hidalgo, its mayor, wants Messi in Paris "but not to the detriment of Mbappé."
Leo will be another banner for France then.
PSG manages its communication with an iron fist.
Messi will be protected from the press with his "British" management.
Access to Messi will only be possible when he or the club decides.
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