Lionel Messi
is (again) the cover boy in France.
Sports newspapers and portals talk about him and his immediate future.
And
everyone agrees that on July 1 he will be out of Paris.
But there is always a but.
And that but (a but nothing less) comes from Doha, Qatar, the same place where he achieved complete happiness just over 100 days ago.
It is that the owners of PSG, the families that manage that small Arab emirate that between November and December became the center of the universe, are the only ones who until now have doubts and are considering not releasing the best player in history.
It is for this reason, this sole reason, that no one dares to say emphatically that Messi will leave Paris Saint Germain.
"Lionel Messi will not be a Parisian next season (unless Doha kicks the board)
," headlines
RMC Sports
, a site that follows the day-to-day life of the club that leads Ligue 1 in France.
The French newspapers talk about Lionel Messi.
L'Equipe
, who loves the Argentine little or nothing, points out:
"Lionel Messi should not continue his adventure at PSG next season. One last door remains open,
if the Argentine striker
accepts a significant reduction in his salary. La Pulga is waiting, for his part, for guarantees on the Parisian project"
.
And he argues:
"At the end of the contract on June 30, La Pulga' could normally activate a clause that allows him to evolve for another year under the Parisian colors. But the whistles of the fans, on Sunday night, outside the match against Lyon (0-1), testify to an idyll that will never really last. The November discussions between Nasser al-Khelaïfi and the Messi clan are a distant memory. It must be said that the player's performances observed since January are disproportionate with the recitals he gave at the start of the season.Since he met his career goal against France, the PSG player seems stuck in a lasting void.During the loss against OL, Messi - who was rated 3 in our columns - lost 26 balls"
.
The French newspapers talk about Lionel Messi.
Le Parisien
travels in the same vein
:
"The attacking trio Messi-Neymar-Mbappé could break up next summer, between the desire of the players and the will of the club. But the interests of each field continue to be contradictory."
But... As said, there is always a but.
It is clear that the three main newspapers that follow PSG's day-to-day cannot get out of the contradiction.
And the reason, at least in the case of the captain of the Argentine National Team, is that that meeting with the boss of PSG (and his bosses?) is still pending in which Jorge Messi, representative and father of the star, will sit down and will listen.
There the patriarch of the Messi will wait for an
economic offer
-it is known that it will be lower than the initial contract of 30 million euros for the financial fair play to which the club must adjust-, but he will also try to listen to a
sports proposal
that is capable of seduce her son.
It is that beyond money, what matters, what interests Leo the most is a serious project.
He wants to be part of a competitive team capable of fighting to win the Champions League.
Messi needs a team that contains and motivates him.
An idea that will draw a smile on your face again.
Will Christophe Galtier, his current DT, be there?
Will Luis Campos, the sports director, continue?
All questions that these days, whistles and whistles through, would not be resolved in the Parque de los Príncipes and its surroundings.
Messi cannot change PSG's downward trend.
Photo: AFP
Why is Messi so patient with PSG?
Above all because the French club has the priority of executing a renewal clause for another season.
And second, because for now he has no drinkable offer in sight beyond the fact that Barcelona is campaigning (to start with the media) to repatriate his prodigal son.
Why is Messi so patient with PSG?
Emmanuel Petit
, world champion with France in 1998,
wonders the same thing
.
"I hear many critics say that Messi walks on the pitch, but all of us who follow him know that even in Barcelona's best days he also walked. Messi is the master of the orchestra, he directs and the other players are around him. those who have to make the efforts"
, commented Petit, who wore the shirts of Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea.
And he continued:
"PSG's problem is not players like Messi or Neymar, but you have to know how to play with these players. Look at Argentina, they were world champions, surrounding Messi with warriors, willing to die and donate their blood for Messi. Or when I see Barcelona, everyone running around the teachers. It reminds me of when I played with Zidane, I wasn't going to tell Zizou that he should run to defend, I had to do that for him to lead the orchestra. Whistling at Messi is an insult to football. If I can give Leo some advice, leave this club, it's not a football club, it's a pre-retirement club even if you're 20 years old. No player has ever progressed in PSG, that's not Messi's fault
. "
Petit, almost without wanting to, provides solutions for Messi.
And also for PSG: he must better surround Messi, beyond Neymar and Mbappé.
They have to put together a team and not an accumulation of individuals.
Thierry Henry
also wonders why his former teammate is so patient with the French club.
"It is embarrassing to listen to the whistles from the Park. You cannot whistle one of the best players on the team. It is not information, it is a wish, Messi has to return to Barcelona for the love of football and because he did not leave as he should. The cries of his farewell show me
," said the former striker who now officiates as a commentator.
Messi and Henry, together in Barcelona.
Photo: @juegosimple__
Now another question:
is Barcelona in a position to recover Messi?
As we have been saying, there are several barriers to unlock before thinking about a return to Catalonia beyond the fact that both parties returned to dialogue, leaving behind the disaster that pushed the Argentine to leave, incredibly, through the back door.
The first obstacle goes through the financial problems of Barcelona and the short rein of LaLiga, with Javier Tebas as a relentless auditor.
For the next season, the salary mass of the professional team must drop by 200 million euros.
This need goes against the grain of an eventual return of Messi.
Even playing for free the 10 could not be signed -at this time in the Camp Nou offices they are looking to put together an engineering through different sponsors-.
A second barrier is the legal problems that the Catalan club has on the ropes.
The case is already being investigated by the Court of Instruction No. 1 of Barcelona, which considers that the payments to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees of Spain, José María Enríquez Negreira, could constitute various crimes of
corruption
.
UEFA also
has
the club under scrutiny.
The Slovenian
Aleksander Ceferin
, president of the organism, warned in the last hours that the situation
"is extremely serious"
.
To such an extent that the Catalan club faces a possible sanction that could complicate any signing and
could even leave it without the Champions League... And therefore without Messi.
Third, and nothing less, is the relationship with
Joan Laporta
.
The president of the club, beyond that meeting with Messi's father in which they talked about a possible tribute and other commercial agreements, should make a kind of public apology for the mistreatment he had with Leo when he threw overboard all the renewal negotiations two years ago and forced him to leave Barcelona with his family.
Hello and goodbye.
The day of Messi's arrival in Prís.
Photo: AFP
There is, finally, a fourth item.
There are not a few who believe that all this operative outcry has more to do with Barça's need to camouflage all the judicial and financial problems that threaten it than with a real interest in repatriating its emblematic player.
Even more so from the popular claim that was heard over the weekend when the Camp Nou shouted for Messi in the Kings League final, the 7-a-side football tournament organized by Gerard Piqué and which drew more than 90,000 people.
As you can see, Messi's future is in we'll see.
They send the buts.
In Paris they don't want it, but... And in Barcelona they say they want it, but...
A strange and unexpected dilemma for the man who, at 35 and a half years of age, put the world of football under the skin when he lifted the cup of the world and became immortal.
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"Those whistles are an insult to football, leave Leo from PSG now": a historic French player defended Messi
