PSG: Alessandro Florenzi, close to square one?

Four more years for Juan Bernat in March (

), an additional season for Keylor Navas last month (2024), three for Neymar this weekend (2025), as much for Julian Draxler in the hours to come (2024)… The period seems to be for the renewal of the lease at the moment at PSG. With less than two weeks from the end of the season, all the players in the workforce are not yet fixed on their future. In addition to the cases of goalkeeper Alexandre Letellier, at the end of his contract in June, and Moïse Kean, on loan from Everton, the vagueness also remains around Alessandro Florenzi. Will the Italian side still be Parisian next season?

A few weeks ago, the situation of the defender on loan from AS Roma hardly seemed to bear the seal of mystery so much, at the end of the knockout stages of the Champions League against Barcelona, ​​the 30-year-old Transalpine coast had risen in arrow. Three months later, the evidence is no longer obvious. If the player, who has adapted perfectly to the locker room and to the city, would be inclined to extend his adventure in the capital, the leaders are, them, more hesitant at the idea of ​​exercising his option to buy of about 9 millions of euros. Two weeks before the verdicts and the departure of the internationals in selection for the Euro, they have still not positioned themselves. An immobility which, failing to validate de facto the end of the adventure, translates at least the fact that Florenzi does not act as a priority.

"The semi-final return against City was difficult for him"

Asked by the Corriere dello Sport, the side remained rather elusive about his future in an interview published on Friday.

If he explained that "PSG was the experience [he] was looking for", he was not more specific on his chances of remaining in the capital next season.

On the shelves of Inter Milan, the side was content to retort that "inevitably it's nice" (

).

“But I'm focused on PSG,” he continued.

All my strength is for the club.

The future ?

We'll see !

"

The only certainty, three, or even four games (in the event of a Coupe de France final) from the end of his Parisian experience, it is clear that Florenzi has still not put everyone in agreement. And his performance at the Etihad Stadium in front of Manchester City did not really help matters. Like his partners, he had very little opportunity to distinguish himself in the offensive sector, yet his strong point. On the other hand, his lack of inspiration on the defensive level has, once again, not gone unnoticed.

“The semi-final second leg was difficult for him, admits Federico Balzaretti, his ex-partner for three years at Roma, now a consultant for RMC Sport.

We're not going to hide him, he suffered.

But this match does not reflect his level, it is much better than that.

It's a bit as if after the first leg, we said that Mbappé was a bad striker on the pretext that he had not hit on goal.

It does not work like that.

Alessandro missed his game but overall he's had a pretty good season.

"

Defensive and physical shortcomings

Author of two goals and an assist in Ligue 1, rarely injured (5 games missed except coronavirus), the Italian is indeed not part of the balls of the season. After Kylian Mbappé (3,381 minutes played), Presnel Kimpembe (3,222), Marquinhos (2,946) and Angel Di Maria (2,663), Florenzi (2,580) is also the fifth most used field player since last September. Far ahead of Thilo Kehrer (1,815) and Colin Dagba (1,534) his main competitors. But if he is the indisputable number 1 on the right, he has not for all that gained a status of essential as was able to do Juan Bernat on the left flank. Blame it on this huge gap between his offensive qualities and his defensive shortcomings. But also and above all to the limits that the Italian displays on the physical level due, they say in Italy,of his difficulties recovering from his double anterior cruciate ligament operation on the left knee in 2016 and 2017.

“I worked a lot to get back to my level before my injury, nevertheless assures the Italian at Corriere dello Sport. I think I've done it, especially by working hard on a mental level: it's the head that makes the legs move. I prefer actions over words, working on and off the pitch to improve every aspect of a player's life. “Not sure that this is enough to be offered a lease extension in the capital. In his crystal ball, it is indeed Serge Aurier, an ex of the Parisian house, that Pochettino directed to Tottenham, that PSG would rather see occupy his right flank in the future.